Secret Treasures of the Uchiha
by TimeLoopedPowerGamer
Summary: Sasuke has two ambitions. He has seen the impossibility of one with Itachi in an anonymous hotel corridor, where he barely escaped with a broken arm and his life. He had sort of planned on leaving the other until he killed his brother, but Hiashi Hyūga has a surprise for him. Will finding the hidden underground storehouse of the Uchiha solve all his problems?
1. Chapter 1

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter One**

This had been the worst week in Sasuke's recent memory. No contest, at least since he had became a ninja. Even that awful training in Wave, after Kakashi had almost killed himself fighting that nukenin, had been better. He had direction and drive then. A reason to prove himself, even if it was only against his stupid teammate Naruto. Kakashi had provided leadership, though it had been presented in a lazy, half-assed, sloppy sort of way, and he'd been part of a team. A pathetic, weak team, but _his_ team. He'd had hope – hope for the future of his clan, hope in his own growing strength, hope that he could complete the most important of his two goals in life – revenge.

Now...now he was adrift. Standing with his arms folded in the bright sun in the middle of a grassy field at training ground #72, he waited for the next humiliation that life had dumped on him to begin. Waiting there in the shining sun his mind was filled with dark thoughts. His team was missing, useless, and badly injured. He had proven only his own weakness and stupidity. His hated brother had gotten away. And now, his next great challenge to his strength as a shinobi was waiting for a pathetic, weak little girl so he could beat the secrets of her stuck-up clan's taijutsu style from her tiny body.

Somehow everything had gone wrong, but he would not give up. Uchiha did not give up. Even if he had to train himself, even if he needed to find every secret of his clan alone, even if he had to suffer the indignity of working with weaklings and idiots, he would persevere. Between the newly discovered secret underground storehouse of the Uchiha and his plan to challenge himself and his power against Neji Hyūga, he finally saw a glimmer of hope again.

Sasuke clenched his hands, digging his fingernails into his palms. Hope he'd carve from the world with his bare hands if he had to, starting with Hinata Hyūga.

* * *

**ONE WEEK AGO**

The smell of flowers and perfume filled his head as Sasuke regained consciousness. It wasn't enough to obscure the scent of hospital, though, one Sasuke knew as well as most active shinobi. Not opening his eyes, he stretched out his senses. He wasn't alone in the room.

A page turned. Someone sighed softly. Perfume. A girl. Oh no, not her. Sasuke opened his eyes to a slit, confirming his skinny, pink-haired, fangirl of a teammate was sitting vigil at his bedside, reading some trashy novel. Maybe he could escape without her noticing. She wasn't a very observant kunoichi, after all.

Sasuke tested himself before taking action. Every muscle group was carefully flexed a minute amount, one by one, toes to head. His feet and legs still hurt from the long run to the small nearby village, so he hadn't been out long. Left lower arm was wrapped up but not hurting too much. Pain meds, sure, but he could move it slightly and it didn't burn like hot cinders were shoved inside, so it was most likely almost totally repaired by mednins already. He'd have to stay off it for a few days, no fancy gymnastics for now, but that wouldn't slow him down too much. It wasn't his first broken bone, after all.

What really slowed him down was that he was naked under the sheet. He cursed himself – a real shinobi, a strong shinobi, wouldn't care about being naked or not, he'd do what was required. His equipment was on the table beside his bed but his shirt would have been cut off to treat his broken arm, leaving only his pants. Annoying.

Being a private person, Sasuke was normally very body-conscious. Having hordes of fangirls after him only emphasized in his mind the necessity of proper decorum and not being naked in front of drooling 13 year old girls. Sakura was one of the worst, and having her on his team had been pure torture. She was so weak, so useless, more so even than that blond idiot. But she was waiting by his bedside for some reason, once again in his way. Sasuke realized he'd have to nip this in the bud fast before whatever hospital room drama she'd planned got started. He opened his eyes and coughed intentionally loudly.

"Sasuke-kun! You're awake!" shrieked the pink harpy. He said nothing, sitting up and reaching for his kunai and equipment belt with his uninjured hand. The sheet covering him shifted, leaving his chest bare. Sakura started to say something else loud and stupid, but was momentarily left speechless, staring his his body.

"Sakura," he said, dragging his equipment onto his bed. "W-what is it Sasuke-kun?" she stammered out, still not making eye contact.

"Leave," he said quietly.

"W-what?"

"I'm getting dressed. Now. Leave." She started to sputter but he just began sorting his equipment into piles. Seeing she wasn't leaving fast enough and was about to say something more, he decided he simply didn't care and started getting out of bed, the sheets sliding the rest of the way off his body, his back to her chair but still totally bare. Damn, the floor was cold.

He heard a girlish squeak, a clatter, and then the sound of feet running followed by the sound of the door quickly opening and slamming closed again. She'd dropped her book on the floor and knocked over the chair on her way out, but at least she was gone. Most likely to get a nurse. Time to move.

Pants on, equipment in pockets and belt pouches, shoes located on the floor next to his bed. His feet and legs had been wrapped in clean bandages and he located a sling for his arm. After roughly tying his headband back on one-handed, he was as dressed as he needed to be for now.

Concentrating for a second, he activated his Sharingan. Everything went strange and milky-looking. The knife he spun in his hand seemed to be in slow motion then his hand suddenly veined with chakra as he closed his fist around it and focused. Good, everything was still working.

Not wanting to deal with getting himself officially released from the Konoha hospital and hoping to avoid additional fan-girl entanglements, Sasuke simply left through the window. Before he know where he was headed he found himself silently making his way to the Uchiha clan compound. Cast still on his arm, he wandered out of the growing shadows and through the compound's large gates. Like five years earlier after that horrible night, he stumbled into the empty streets, straight out of his hospital bed, his mind full of confusion and hate and his body aching. The streets were still as silent as that night, all the buildings now boarded up instead of horribly gaping and empty. The evidence of past horrors was wiped away by the years and cleanup crews.

He went directly to his family's spread-out mansion – a large, low-set building fronting onto the main street – and tried to get his thoughts together. The mansion was staffed by a civilian caretaker crew, which kept out of sight and were the only people other than himself allowed into the compound. Sasuke always spent a single night in the house every year, the night of the massacre. The staff kept a bedroom and some clothes for him, though he never visited other than that one night each year. He found some clean clothes that fit him in a closet and headed back to the hospital and to scout out Konoha for information on what the hell had happened. After officially checking out (and getting some more pain medication) he found out that Kakashi was in the hospital, injured in a fight yesterday with Itachi.

"So that was why he's been unconscious in that room," he thought. "My brother was actually _in K__o__noha_. What is wrong with these people, allowing nukenin to simply wander around the village? They are so weak."

Later that day, back at his empty family mansion, Sasuke sat in a silent and slightly dusty room and sulked. He'd quietly grabbed some supplies from his apartment and retreated here. No one was allowed in the clan compound without explicit permission, which he never gave anyone. No one would bother him here. No one cared anyway.

But now his teacher, the only one who even bothered to pretend to care about him, was lying unconscious in the hospital. Naruto had left the village, most likely with that Sannin Jiraiya, to do Kami knows what. Sakura was still stalking him and he was almost sure she knew where his central Konoha apartment was located, but she wasn't allowed inside the clan compound. Serious training was off. He hadn't been able to do anything more than basic physical exercise that day but the soft cast would come off at the end of the week. Mednin were almost tolerable simply because of that increased healing time, despite how weak they were in actual combat.

Trudging around the empty mansion from room to empty room, his thoughts grew darker and darker. He couldn't handle it anymore, he had to get outside the compound. He was going crazy in this empty building. Grabbing his equipment, he almost ran to get out of there. Silently flowing through the shadows to the edge of town, he located a seldom used training area and started a simple calisthenics routine. Attempting any difficult katas with an injury like this was inviting poor practice results and bad habits developing. Best to keep it simple for now.

Working until he collapsed took longer nowadays then it used to, especially without using seal techniques, but holding Tree Walking and Water Walking techniques until near exhaustion still worked. Anything requiring hand seals would have to wait, but (unlike Naruto) he could do both basic chakra exercises without dramatic gestures and total concentration. It still requited focus and tiring amounts of chakra, though, so he kept at it. Anything to keep him from having to think about what had happened.

A day later, his ears were still ringing with his brother's words: _You're in the way._

Instead of continuing to mope, he formed a plan. His inspiration had come from the secret his brother had told him that horrible night. A hidden room with a tablet, secrets he'd only been able to fully read after that disastrous mission in Wave, where he'd activated his Sharingan for the first time. The secrets, about the Mangekyō Sharingan and how to acquire it, weren't...exactly what his brother had claimed. Maybe he could find something to clarify. It couldn't be as bad as his brother made it sound. Maybe the Uchiha clan had hidden something else, something that would explain why he had to kill his best friend to get this power. He wouldn't give up until he had answers.

He found it in one day. He hadn't expected it to be that simple. It had been the seventh building he'd searched for hidden secrets where he'd achieved success. A public meeting hall of some sort, in the main clan council building. Finding the entrance had involved solving a strange geometric puzzle, one he wouldn't have noticed without searching the architecture of the building with his Sharingan activated. The shapes had fooled his eye, appearing to writhe and coil on the walls, his eyes tricked into illusions of movement by the geometry.

After touching the shapes he'd found in the correct order on the prominently located mosaic, pushing his chakra into them one by one, a hidden stairway downward formed out of the stones of the floor. His Sharingan saw the device use his donated chakra to activate previously invisible seals, unrolling the stone stairs down into the darkness.

Sasuke now stood in front of a large stone door at the end of a dark tunnel, a secret passageway under the Uchiha clan council chambers. He'd set out to find a secret, a weapon, a jutsu scroll, something left by his dead clan that would give him an edge. A shortcut to power that he desperately needed. Now that he saw it, it was obvious. Of course there would be underground storehouses under the Uchiha compound – they had been founders of the village, here longer than anyone else. They had time to dig into the ground like moles, hiding secrets there from prying eyes.

At the end of the passage, a stone door slid open slowly before him, his sacrificial blood soaking into the waiting depression. "Blood of the Clan Opens the Way" the message said in the clan message code, something that Sasuke had learned before even entering the Academy. Secrets taught to him by his mother as soon as he could read. Like the Naka Shrine's hidden tablet, this was another secret of the Uchiha that would be lost forever, once he and his brother were dead. One he'd never have thought to look for if it hadn't been for the encounter with his hated brother and his cowardly survival.

His cursed mark burned on his neck, reacting to his anger, offering him instant power yet again. He shoved it down, using his will to maintain Kakashi's seal. It quickly went silent again and the pain receded into a dull ache. It was too soon to risk drawing on an unknown gift like that, given by a powerful and deceitful foe like Orochimaru. Knowing his brother had somehow achieved unbelievable power even before killing his cousin Shisui, and without the snake Sannin's help, he was now driven to seek out some other answer after his most recent failure.

He wouldn't follow his hated brother's path – that was what he'd wanted Sasuke to do, what he'd told Sasuke was his fate before facing him again. He'd tried to rush it. Even knowing he didn't have the power, he'd challenged Itachi and had been utterly defeated. At least he'd realized that before throwing away his life following his hateful brother's questionable advice. Staring into the long, dark hallway, blood still dripping from his slashed thumb, his mind cast back to that fight and his complete failure.

* * *

He had attacked with all his strength, his most powerful technique.

It hadn't been enough. _He _hadn't seemed to even move, just casually grabbed his arm and redirected the Chidori into the wall, harmlessly. Then _he_ turned around and ignored him. Like Sasuke was nothing. Still too weak to matter._ That person _was a giant. Untouchable. Monstrous. How could he hope to ever even lay a hand on _him_, let along kill _him_.

He was saying something about something called Akatsuki and kidnapping Naruto, but that obviously wasn't happening with one of the Sannin around. Itachi couldn't be that powerful – could he?

Sasuke lay on the ground, his left arm burned from his own Chidori and bones broken by his brother's casual grasp. "It was so easy for Itachi. He could have killed me effortlessly," Sasuke realized as his eyes burned with tears of pain and frustration.

"I could try again," Sasuke thought. "I've got to get up! Got to kill him! He's right there!"

Using his other hand to lever himself up, his mind going blank from pain, Sasuke tried to stand, tried to find the strength to continue to fight. His hated brother wasn't even looking at him, just standing talking to the Sannin, Jiraiya. As usual, everyone was talking about Naruto – Sasuke didn't even matter to his brother.

Taking gasping breaths and trying to muster his remaining strength, his head finally started clearing. "It doesn't make sense," he suddenly thought through the haze of pain. "What was so important about that idiot that everyone would risk so much, literally fighting over him? All the village hated Naruto, that much was obvious. His team didn't like him, the other ninjas didn't like him. Why were they protecting him like this? Was it his strange new strength?"

Sasuke had seen Naruto come from nowhere in the last month of the Chūnin exam – from still obviously being his same old dead last abilities to fighting and defeating the Sand jinchūriki during that horrible day of the invasion. That power had been...insane, washing over Sasuke with an evil aura, far worse than he expected from the stories his father had told about beasts that leveled mountains. And Naruto hadn't seemed to even notice. It had been as bad or worse than Orochimaru's killing aura and the blond idiot had just kept fighting like nothing was happening. There was something wrong with him, something that gave him the strength to beat not only Neji but Gaara in his fully transformed and released form.

Sasuke knew he had been close to dying when Naruto had showed up and basically saved his life and possibly the entire village. The fight after that (what he remembered) had been unreal. After Naruto had saved his ass (and Sakura's, but she had been useless), it had quickly spiraled out of control, with giant summons and transformation jutsu larger than Sasuke had ever seen before. The shear quantity of chakra required for that kind of combat was staggering. The obvious answer was that Naruto was stronger than Sasuke had ever realized. Surpass his brother? Sasuke hadn't even surpassed his teammate, dead last at the academy.

He wanted to stand, to strike his brother, to see him dead and bleeding on the floor, to do to him what Itachi had done to his parents, to his entire clan. He burned with that hate. But his body betrayed him. Instead of attempting to stand, Sasuke dragged himself away from the others to prop his back against the wall.

Despair set in. He was too slow, too weak. Even Naruto was stronger than he was now. And his arm was injured, his best move countered. His murderous rage started fading into hopelessness. This had been a mistake. He couldn't do this. His revenge, his very reason for living, for waking up in the mornings, for not ending it all, was looking impossible. Unreachable.

All strength then left his body. He listlessly watched the Sannin, his brother, and that random Akatsuki guy posture and threaten each other. A small scuffle and the Sannin used some strange summon to change the entire hallway. He said something about no one escaping and toads. Sasuke didn't care anymore. There was no way even the Sannin could kill his brother. Sure enough, the strange guy in the cloak and his brother burned a hole in the fleshy wall and simply left. Not really running, just repositioning for a future attack. "What had brother told me about ninja tactics?" he thought numbly. "Something like, 'never retreat, simply advance in another direction.'"

Sasuke slowly slumped sideways, losing consciousness as the Sannin did something to the strange black fire on the wall with a scroll. It didn't matter, Sasuke thought. Nothing mattered but somehow getting strong enough to kill _that man_. Darkness reached out to claim him but he still didn't care.

* * *

For the next two days after his discovery, Sasuke simply woke up, ate, practiced all day, searched hidden clan tunnels for secrets, returned home, bathed, ate, and then slept, trying to avoid thinking about either his failure or the future and his impossible task of revenge. On the fourth day he visited Kakashi in the hospital again, now learning how the most powerful jōnin he'd ever met had been reduced to lying in bed in a coma that they couldn't revive him from. They still didn't know how to treat him. He might never wake up.

The rumors said that, in less than a minute of combat, three Leaf jōnin had been soundly defeated by the two nukenin, his brother and the Akatsuki shark dude. It was only Maito Gai showing up, making it four on two, that ended the conflict, but with the nukenin still escaping unharmed. No one seemed to know what the shark guy's abilities were, so it had likely been just his brother actively fighting against the three jōnin. The results were clear, regardless of the rumors: Kakashi, one of the strongest shinobi in the village, had been effortlessly defeated while part of a group of other jōnin, in the middle of Konoha. Once again, Sasuke wondered how he'd ever match that level of power.

Immediately after escaping from the hospital, he'd meditated on his failure against Itachi and found several important mistakes, including: fighting while exhausted from rushing to find Naruto, not using his Sharingan correctly, attacking head-on instead of from ambush, not having a plan on how to continue the attack, and not even attempting to use the cursed mark (however dangerous that might have been).

"That was strangest of all," he thought, looking down at his unconscious sensei. Kakashi had sealed the mark from Orochimaru during the Chūnin Exam, with a promise extracted that Sasuke would not use it. The seal was based on his own chakra and willpower, so using it was his choice. If he had activated it during the exam, he would have been disqualified, his sensei had said. But against his brother, he shouldn't have hesitated. With it activated in the Forest of Death, he'd defeated three chūnin level ninja, and done so easily. He should have claimed that power to use against his brother. But it hadn't even occurred to him.

Kakashi had said the power gained from the Cursed Seal of Heaven was dark, and would rot his body the more he used it. Even if he believed his sensei, that shouldn't have stopped him from calling on it in his hour of need. Looking back though, he saw it wouldn't have been enough. Most likely, it wouldn't have made any difference in that fight as his brother was so far above him in power. So he still needed to improve a great deal to even think about challenging his brother. And if the seal really was a trap, one designed to hurt him instead of help, he'd simply have to improve that much more to make up for not being able to use it to his advantage. Which brought him back to more urgent issues – _how_ to grow stronger.

His current situation was clear. Sensei disabled, one teammate missing and most likely getting personal training from a legendary Sannin, and the pink-haired one so useless as to not enter into any plans. So, once again, Sasuke was left with solo training. At least with Naruto around, Kakashi had let them spar all the time. Naruto was good for a punching bag, at least. Anything was better than smacking a wooden post. Kami, he hated solo training.

After the hospital visit, he went off to what he was now thinking of as his training ground (#72, the nearest to the Uchiha compound) to resume his training. He'd been working out for about two hours when something tripped his finely honed senses: he was being watched.

Continuing his kick strikes practice against the post (he hated posts so much) while subtly moving so his back wasn't to the hidden person's location, he considered his options. He could ignore it – he lived in a fucking Hidden Village, so someone was sneaking around near him practically every day. It might just be some chūnin playing around or maybe an ANBU watching him for the usual security reasons.

It would be insulting if the latter, as ANBU shouldn't be detectable even by his keen senses, so letting him knew they were there was suggesting he wasn't worth hiding from. But it would be simply annoying if the former, as he should be getting more respect than being the stalking target of some upstart chūnin. If only his fight in the finals hadn't been interrupted by international terrorists and a village war, everyone could have seen his true strength.

Despite that, he'd surely get promoted, but that wouldn't happen until the Hokage succession was worked out. Hopefully Naruto would be back by then, not that the idiot was a sure thing for promotion but he had made it to the end and won his first fight in the finals. Maybe the blond disaster would get luck and be promoted too. Not his pink-haired teammate, though. Sakura's prelim fight had been...bad. No way was she getting promoted.

The problem now was how to react to someone shadowing his training. As Shikamaru would say: troublesome. There was literally no killing intent showing, so they most likely weren't trying to hurt him. Even if they were, let them come. He'd show them his strength, even if they were a chūnin. The Uchiha didn't back down and would defeat all challengers, and he was the last loyal Uchiha. The honor of his clan was on his back now. But this was still throwing his training off, so he decided to wrap-up early and return to his full training time tomorrow.

Quickly gathering up his backpack, he left the training ground for his house at full speed, doubling back and hiding a few times to make sure he wasn't being followed just for practice. It wasn't like it would be hard to figure out where he was going, though – everyone knew the Uchiha symbol on his back and where the now-empty compound was. It was illegal to enter without Clan permission, though, so except for ANBU (who were exempt from that law) no one tried to trespass there. Still, good practice at actually being a shinobi, something the rest of his loser team didn't seem to understand.

Naruto was more like a rolling natural disaster than a stealthy shinobi and Sakura was useless at anything but hiding under a bush. Sasuke thought they might be literally the worst ninja in the village, which would be consistent with his luck so far in life. Practicing stalking and hiding wasn't very challenging with them. Maybe if this mysterious stalker showed up again he could have some fun.

Heading out the next day for training, he kept his senses on high alert – more good practice. The world should be his battlefield and situational awareness was one of the first lessons Itachi had tried to drill into him. He wouldn't fail to be vigilant, especially now with the village recovering from a huge attack – it could be a spy or assassin, after all.

His brother was on his mind again. Sasuke wondered what had he been like at his age. How had he grown so strong, so fast? He was a genius, sure, but it was incredible what he had achieved. He had been working full time as a chūnin from age 10 and still had the time to train to jōnin level skills in near record time. He spent most of his spare time with their cousin Shisui, another legendary Uchiha, so maybe that was the secret to his success. If only one of his clan was still alive to help, he wouldn't be spending all of his time in solo practice.

Working into the third hour of training, he suddenly detected his stalker again, hiding behind a tree. Sasuke grinned. It was time to take out some of his frustrations on whoever was being so foolish as to spy on him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

It felt like the same chakra signature, almost hidden to his Sharingan and with no killing intent. Strange. Maybe someone other than ANBU was monitoring him. Possible that some genin team was using him for stalk and hide exercises, annoying as that would be. Team training wasn't to be interfered with but his solo practice sessions had no such protection. If that was the case, maybe showing them how bad they were at hiding would help. Stopping his kicking drill, Sasuke instantly spun in place and threw a kunai into the ground in front of the low brush hiding his stalker. Placement was perfect, of course – it was a sort of warning shot not a real attack on his part.

"Show yourself," he said, his voice loud and monotone, while retrieving another kunai from his pouch and holding it ready.

The brush squeaked loudly and violently shook, reveling a young girl in a bulky coat wearing a Leaf headband around her neck. Her hands were empty and timidly raised in front of her in surrender. He took one look at her and was disgusted. Hinata Hyūga was easy to recognize, both from his Academy class and from the Chūnin Exam Finals prelim where she'd lost so disgracefully.

Such a weak demeanor was embarrassing, even for a girl. He had hated how all the females at the Academy always acted so soft and submissive, like being a ninja was a game they were playing with their girlfriends. It was so revolting seeing them just prance through their lessons with mediocre scores in the practical exams let alone their fangirl actions whenever he was around. Most of the mature kunoichi he saw in the village were at least acting and dressing like ninja, which was more than he saw in his classmates.

Hinata wasn't the worst of them and at least she wasn't a fangirl, but she was always so quiet, no aggression even in her Academy sparing sessions. He'd never paired up with her for some reason, but even as a little kid without the Sharingan he had still been able to tell how weak she was. No initiative, awkward in the Academy style, and even during the Chūnin Exam's preliminary fight she'd still been massively outclassed by another Hyūga only a year older than her, one that wasn't even in the main house.

And now here she stood, fidgeting and staring at her feet. "What does she want?" he wondered silently. He wasn't about to demean himself by asking, though. Waiting for her to say something was an exercise in frustration, as he had to watch her practically vibrate in place for over a minute, her hands playing with the bottom of her puffy coat. Most Hyūga were staid and dignified, but this one was acting like a kicked puppy.

Mere seconds before he was going to give up and say something, she finally spoke up. "Ano, uhh, U-Uchiha-san, uhh, you are...o-on Nar- err, U-Uzumaki-san's team, right?"

"Hn," he replied.

She was now at least looking in his general direction, but was still stuttering and shuffling her feet, almost whispering her words. "I, I, I was trying to f-find him. I-I mean, he wasn't at...at his apartment and, uhh, he hasn't been there for several days," she babbled, the words apologizing all the way out of her mouth. "D-do you know where he has g-gone?"

This was painful for Sasuke to watch, let alone listen to. Trying to avoid rubbing his temples to stave off a growing headache, he simply stood there, kunai put away and hand in his pocket, and waited, glaring at the stupid little girl. After a few seconds, she finally looked up at him, her worry evident on her face. She saw his neutral, blank look and immediately looked back down, her fingers twisting together hard in front of her. He was tiring of this, so finally answered her question.

"Yes," he said, shortly and unhelpfully. He then turned around and started ignoring her again, resuming his practice session. After a few minutes, he noticed her presence moving away.

The next day she was back again. About 30 minutes into his practice, she simply walked up to the training area and waited at the edge of the trees, fidgeting and lightly scuffing the ground. He ignored her for the next hour, but she didn't leave. Once again tiring of her presence, he decided to confront the silly little Hyūga and get rid of her for good.

"What?" he demanded, turning to face her.

"A-ano, I w-wanted to ask about Naruto-kun," she stammered, taking a few steps backward.

"Why?" he inquired briefly. Hinata gulped, stammering wordlessly for a bit. "I-I am w-worried about him. He's in trouble, I-I know it. I, I, I want to h-help," she whispered, face red as a tomato.

"Hn," he replied, not elaborating. She waited for him to continue for another minute, then realized he had no intention of giving her the answers she wanted. Eyebrows drawn together, she worked up her courage and tried again.

"W-will you tell me where he is, Uchiha-san?" she asked. Sasuke waited a few seconds, then said, "No."

Hinata looked at him, shocked. "W-why not?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"I have no reason to help you. You are weak and annoying. Go away," he said, glaring at her. She gasped then turned and fled. Smirking, he returned to his training.

The next day, he was just biding his time until the cast came off his arm and he could train seriously. When Hinata showed up again, pretending to hide behind a tree at the edge of the training area, his temper was already close to the breaking point.

Immediately stomping over to her "hiding" spot, he waited for her to come out from behind the tree while attempting to glare a hole through it with his mind. Though it never worked, he had high hopes that one day it would. Sasuke idly wondered if his brother could actually do that – burn holes in things with his mind.

She finally shuffled out, eyes firmly on the ground, hands clenched at her sides in tiny little fists. It was strange, he thought, she almost looked angry. Maybe she'd found a backbone – this should be interesting.

"U-Uchiha-san, p-please tell me w-where Naruto-kun is!" she demanded with a squeak while bowing far too low for their relative status, current social relationship, and being a Kami-damned ninja with some pride. He winced then schooled his face neutral, carefully making sure she didn't notice this was embarrassing him almost as much as her.

"No," he said again. Still bowing humiliatingly, Hinata asked again. "P-please. I-I will do whatever you ask. I-I will leave you alone. J-just, p-please let me know w-where he is!"

"What you want does not concern me," Sasuke growled, still glaring at her. "You have no idea what Naruto is dealing with, the kinds of enemies he faces." Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he considered the trembling girl. "The way you are, weak and useless, it wouldn't matter if you knew where he was. You can't help him." He stalked towards the girl, continuing to berate her. She gasped and took several steps back, raising her hands as if to fend off his words.

"Your cousin demolished you in the exam! You didn't even land a single telling blow on him!" he spat out. He was almost shouting, towering over her as she quavered in front of him. She was speechless now, staring up at him in horror, but he wouldn't relent.

Not even noticing that his Sharingan had turned on, he continued to glower at her, locking his eyes with slowly spinning comas onto her pale gray ones. She quailed before him, unable to run or even fight back. His killing intent was a heavy blanket over her, pressing down and locking her shaking legs in place.

"If that had been a mission, you would have failed yourself and your team. You would be dead and so would they." Venting all of his frustration on the defenseless girl, he kept hammering her. Sasuke could sense her weakness clearly now and went right for it.

"Your cousin _tried_ to kill you in the exams. But Naruto _avoided_ killing your cousin in the finals. I heard detailed reports of that fight, and he could _easily_ have landed a killing blow. Instead, he spared the life of his fellow Leaf shinobi. But it was _his_ choice.

"As it is now, Naruto is as far beyond you as an average genin is from a civilian. What could you possibly hope to do for him? You can't help fight his current threats and he is moving further beyond your reach every day. You should just give up."

Still looming over her, he expected Hinata to flee again at any moment. She seemed to collapse into herself, hiding deeper in the coat and staring at her feet – a turtle retreating into its shell. Then she suddenly stilled. Her hands stopped clutching her coat and balled into fists at her side.

"N-no, I can h-help him! I-I will help him! I, I, I will prove it to you!" she choked-out. Sasuke was shocked; turned out the princess could only be pushed so far. Thinking quickly, he considered whether Hinata could be useful to him. Some way she could help make him stronger.

The Byakugan did interest him, he realized. Given how well the Hyūga eyes did in Neji's fight against the blond idiot, it was obviously inferior to the Sharingan – there was no way he, the genius Uchiha, Rookie of the Year, could have been tricked that way by Naruto's clones. Something as simple as his glance, a muscle twitch, or a hitch in his breathing could have given away his plan. The Byakugan could show you everything around you but it didn't help with recognizing tiny details during combat.

Naruto had told him that, during Hinata's fight against Neji, Kakashi-sensei had said that the Byakugan was superior to the Uchiha's bloodline, but the results were clear. Before the Finals, Sasuke's analysis was that he was superior to Naruto, and the blond loser beat Neji, so obviously the Sharingan was better than the Byakugan. But now, with Itachi after his idiot teammate, who had strange powers and was now apparently being trained by one of the Kami-damned Sannin, this simple equation came into question.

Well, logically, he should start over and prove every step. Showing how much better he was than the Hyūga heiress would be a first step. Then, find and challenge Neji, and when Naruto returned, challenge the idiot. Victory at every point would confirm his superiority, total success would restore both honor to his clan and the feasibility of his life ambition: revenge.

He was now determined to show his eyes were better than the stuck-up Hyūga's and thus show how far beyond Naruto his potential was. If the idiot could only beat the Hyūga genius with silly tricks, piercing that bloodline's perfect defense in a straight forward spar would prove Sasuke's skills all the more. Sparing with this weak little princess would be a safe way to learn how to beat Neji's eyes.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted out loud, pausing for a few more seconds. "Fine. I'll tell you where Naruto is."

Hinata's head jerked up and she looked at him with hope in her eyes. Hope that died a second later.

"If you can beat me in a spar, that is," he said, smirking as her face fell, despair once again claiming her. He figured she'd likely give up now and he'd just have to track Neji down himself. If not, well, Sasuke was still recovering and wouldn't be ready for Neji anytime soon so it wouldn't be a complete waste of time and might give him an edge against the genius.

But once again, his Sharingan tracked the subtle body language of someone finding something, somewhere deep inside, that wouldn't let them give up. She actually squared her shoulders. Sasuke was surprised to realize similarities to how Naruto reacted to the impossible – putting his head down and refusing to give up, no matter how unlikely victory was. Intriguing.

"I-I agree, U-Uchiha-san," she stammered out, quietly resolute. "I w-will beat you, and then y-you'll tell me about...Naruto-kun."

"Hn," he grunted, then turned his back on her, intentionally being insulting. Once he'd reached the training post again, he spoke over his shoulder at the girl. "Your first chance will be this time tomorrow afternoon. Standard spar, nonlethal jutsu and equipment use. Standard Academy point system. No prepared ground or traps. This training ground, #72. You will lose, of course."

She left a moment later without saying a word. Sasuke smirked again, looking forward to his first victory tomorrow. He only hoped she didn't fold immediately. At least Naruto could take a few hits before collapsing and spewing blood everywhere.

* * *

The door to Hinata's room had the hanging iron privacy sign up, like it usually did. Most branch house servants didn't even bother to check for it anymore and just left their Byakugan off when nearby. The system was as old as the Hyūga, and was designed to provide a modicum of privacy in a clan where literally everyone could see through walls.

When someone saw one of these shapes on the door, it meant turn off your eyes. The square cross inside a circle design was unique and the dense iron material made it show up easily even in a shadowy background of see-through objects. Hinata was aware that they had a similar one for bedrooms, specifically those of married couples, that was hung over the beds. It told people to leave their eyes off any time they passed near all that night, for obvious reasons.

Hinata's room was set far back from the rest of the compound, surrounded by gardens of lush flowers and herbs, a way of granting high-born main house members more privacy though distance. The area was only covered by external security, but that was done through a set of full-time guard patrols and posts making her one of the most secure persons in the village. Even the Hokage's office was usually less well protected. It hadn't been this way always. It was her fault, in a sense, as her kidnapping as a young child was the reason the clan lived in even more of a glass bubble now.

Before, quiet guards with their Byakugan off were the norm for the Hyūga clan compound, especially in the main house areas. Privacy was the primary concern back then. Now, everyone had their private lives invaded on a regular basis. Still, Hinata used the symbol on her door almost all the time. Even that wasn't enough for her, though.

Checking with her Byakugan for a third time in less than a minute (it took no extra power to activate, just a constant drain while it was on), she stood next to a clothes hamper in the in-suite bathroom and nervously started stripping off her training gear. The weapons belt had been left by the door, the dirty equipment to be cleaned later by house servants. She was wearing house slippers, her last pair of ninja shoes already with servants for cleaning. She kicked those off, then started carefully removing her dirty socks with shaking hands. Her Fire Country coat was next (part of a set, a present from the Fire Daimyō's court) and went on a hanger over the hamper, also to be carefully cleaned. The blue capri training pants went into the hamper. She was left in underpants, fishnet armor shirt, and quilted undershirt.

Hinata carefully shrugged the light, fitted mail over her head, then draped it over the free-standing mannequin bust in the corner. The thick, sweat-soaked undershirt went in the hamper. Clean sets of all of her training clothes were already waiting on a counter, left by her servants, but she didn't spare a minute to think about that. They knew her needs and anticipated them.

She was now completely unarmored, stripped of all defenses, almost naked and alone and terrified. She didn't have to be alone, there were servants she could call on, but she couldn't stand their presence, their pitying glances. The stress of being around them was enough to dissuade her from calling for help. At least she could get used to being alone and weak.

Her entire body shaking now she removed the rest of her underclothes, ending with her expensive exercise bra, one of a set Kurenai-sensei had bought for her as an Academy graduation present. Hinata hadn't let servants dress her since she was able to do so herself, preferring being left alone as much as possible. No one else had noticed she was way over due for one until she'd joined Team 8. She hadn't had any female friends (or really, friends at all) at the Academy and had the questionable fortune of being very early to develop.

She'd originally started wearing multiple layers of shirts and ninja armor to hide her developing breasts, but that hadn't worked forever. Eventually, some of the female instructors had started giving her odd looks and the other girls had noticed either her strange clothing or what she'd been trying to hide. Their whispering and glares hadn't helped her self-confidence, so she'd started wearing her coat all the time, even during the summer. When asked, she'd mumbled something about it being a family training requirement.

Everyone had left her alone after she started to wear the coat. Later, seeing how other large chested girls were treated by the cliques had cemented her decision. The lovely coat had continued to hide her breasts from jealous females and increasingly strange-acting boys, something Hinata saw as a good thing as she was by far the largest in her class, if not the school. Many of the teachers were less well endowed, a fact that only embarrassed her further.

Kurenai-sensei, usually serious but very up-beat, had looked like she wanted to kill someone when she'd finally found out about Hinata's...situation. It had been during the first week of their training as a new team. Sensei had called her over to another part of the training ground to privately ask Hinata to review her ninja equipment for inspection (a standard safety and training check), which had resulted in Hinata having to take off the coat and show her armor and layered shirts. After a few gentle but confused questions, Kurenai-sensei had canceled the rest of that day's practice and immediately took Hinata shopping, the older kunoichi grinding her teeth all the way to a high-end boutique store in the middle of the village.

She'd extracted a promise from Hinata to let her know when certain parts of the complicated clothing item started pinching or feeling uncomfortable. They'd had to go shopping twice since – after the second time, sensei had muttered something about jōnin expense accounts and bankrupting the Hokage and had worked out a private account with the store, charged to the Hyūga clan. Exercising was painless now and she didn't have to wear multiple layers of shirts to get some comfort and avoid poking out. She really liked the coats and still wore them, though.

After taking a shower and drying off, during which Hinata checked the area with her Byakugan 23 more times, she stood in front of her personal closet and looked in the full-length mirror, still shivering even though she wasn't cold. She didn't understand why the girls at the Academy said what they had about looking beautiful, but it was obvious from what she'd overheard and her reflection in the mirror that she wasn't. The longer she looked, the more sure Hinata was that she wasn't good enough for Naruto to notice; whatever boys liked about girls, she didn't measure up. Her head hung low and she stared at the ground, miserable.

She didn't have long, silky blond hair, wear nice makeup, walk around in delicate and expensive clothes, or have a closet full of shoes (whatever that meant). Her breasts were too large – which made her a bad person somehow, she didn't get why and the Academy girls hadn't explained – and she was too short and her hips were too wide; again according to the other girls, one needed to be tall and slender, with refined cheekbones, delicate feet, and long slim legs. She looked at the mirror again, seeing muscular thighs and calves, calloused feet and hands from long, hard training, arms with small, ropy muscles, and her plain, unremarkable face.

Because she was a Hyūga she also had weird eyes that no one liked. Thank Kami they'd never found out how Hyūga always accidentally saw under other people's clothes whenever the Byakugan was enabled. She wasn't sure they could have ostracized her any more but at least they hadn't hated her actively or tried to mess with her stuff or trip her in the halls, like those unpopular and mostly non-clan girls that were their usual targets. Young ninja in training had some very mean options at their disposal.

Sliding open the large walk-in closet near the back of her suite of rooms, the one furthest from the entrance, with her still shaking hands, she took another clean, gray coat off a hanger and a leather sheathed kunai from her equipment store on the shelf. Naked except for the unzipped coat, she dragged the blankets and pillows off her sleeping pad and arranged them inside the closet in a carefully jumbled little nest (Byakugan checked 11 more times) then grabbed a clean, dry towel from the bathroom.

She shakily arranged a couple of pillows, the sheets, and what was supposed to be her nightdress on the bed to look like someone about her size was sleeping there. It might give her enough time to run or sound an alarm if a kidnapper or assassin went for that first, she thought, the familiar fear almost overwhelming her. Retreating to the closet and closing the door almost all the way (so she could still hear out), she curled up in the blankets. She knew sleep was still far away, though.

Hinata suffered from nightly insomnia. Every time she started to get comfortable, something would pop into her head – a worry about the next day's training, something about letting down her sensei, her failure at the exams, a horrible vision of her teammates dying in battle, something. Tonight it was Naruto-kun and what might have happened to him.

He'd simply disappeared. His loud, pink-haired teammate had no idea where he was and didn't seem to care. Tracking down the raven-haired Uchiha had been a lot harder. She'd followed him back from the hospital the other day to the gates of the Uchiha compound easily enough. She'd thought about sneaking in but in the end, she'd simply arrived early one morning and staked-out the old, empty compound until he left for training. She'd naïvely thought she could simply ask him for the information and be on her way. But the strangely quiet boy wouldn't tell her anything for free, and now she had to do something impossible to get what he knew about Naruto-kun.

She wasn't stupid. She'd seen a little of how he'd fought in the Chūnin Exam. He was almost as good as cousin Neji, and likely faster. He was certainly mean like Neji and also quietly determined. After finding out his sensei was in the hospital, she knew he didn't have to run missions or do team training, but he was still out there training obsessively on his own.

Maybe she'd get lucky. He wouldn't be able to use lethal blows and Jūken could disable him easily. She'd go in with her strongest disabling blows and end it fast, just like Neji had tried to against Naruto. If it hadn't been for that strange, red chakra, she was sure poor Naruto would have lost against the Jūken, the strongest taijutsu technique in Konoha, if not the entire entire ninja world. Naruto had fought so bravely against Neji even though the odds at looked impossible, but he'd been so determined. And he'd won!

She spent several long minutes staring into the darkness, trying to calm her mind, but it wasn't to be. Her mind roiled furiously, unable to settle, one meaningless thought following another. Then a lifeline appeared and thoughts of a different sort started, turning her mind to Naruto. She surrendered to the inevitable hungers, as she did most nights, and shifted a little on the blankets to arrange her towel, switching her sheathed kunai to her left and off-hand.

Thinking back as she readied herself, she remembered the relief she'd felt after that sex-ed class for the girls at the Academy. It had left her dizzy and red-faced for the rest of the day but also deeply reassured her. Given just before they graduated, it was obviously to prepare them for some of the rumored chūnin-level classes about seduction and such that older kunoichi were expected to know, but most of the girls didn't take it seriously and simply giggled and said things like "eww" and "gross." Hinata, though, had been genuinely worried about some of the things she'd been feeling and doing.

Having to have the servants tell her about periods a couple of years earlier had been embarrassing enough, there had been no way she'd ask them about this other thing. It being mentioned, if only in passing in an academic setting, had reassured her, as had the emphasis of it being completely natural and even helpful in relieving stress. Kami knew she had enough of that. Not having been given...details on the act in the class, she'd simply worked it out for herself.

Trying to relax and put an end the nervous shaking, she continued to think about Naruto. How kind he was to her; well, when he even noticed her that was. Even though the villagers treated him so mean, he kept a simple smile on his face and in his heart. Always training so seriously by himself, doing endless pushups and punching exercises.

She thought about how she'd finally gotten up the courage to take a good, long look at him a few months ago with her Byakugan while she'd been spying on him training one day. She knew it was wrong but she did it anyway, and the memories were worth it. What his body looked like, naked under the full power of her eyes. How he'd moved, how good he'd looked running through his taijutsu katas – so different from her training but so powerful and energetic. The sheathed kunai dropped unnoticed from her hand and into the bedding.

She started breathing faster, her mind pulling up full, three-dimensional memories of her idol. Lost in fantasy now, she thought of things that had never happened, might never happen, probably never would happen. She imagined what it would be like to hold his hand and stare into his eyes. How it would feel to hold him close, to stroke his firm body, to have his large hands hold her face, to have him kiss her lips. How safe she'd feel with him curled up at her side. How he'd hold her close...and eventually move his hands down, and...she turned her Byakugan on and left it on, pushing her hands under the edges of the coat.

Hinata had found something strange while experimenting one night – her area of total vision included her own chakra system, of course, but what happened while she was comforting herself was amazing. Like a fireworks show starting inside her body and spreading with every touch, she would glow with internal light. She loved to watch it and had even tried to figure out a way to use the pressure points she knew to gently assist and enhance what she saw.

That was when she'd made the greatest discovery of her life: a new technique she didn't even have a name for, something that enhanced her own pleasure to impossible levels. She now had to pace-out her nightly sessions to avoid ending them too quickly – too sore and exhausted to continue. In her dirtiest thoughts, she had considered the name "Fingers of Ecstasy," but that was too embarrassing to even think about writing down in a jutsu scroll.

Her right hand drifted over her body, trained into precision with much practice, touching _here _and _there_ over and over again, with firm, chakra-enhanced, almost jūken-like taps. Not hitting chakra points to close and overload them, she instead stimulated pleasure points and enhanced nervous-tissue centers for higher sensitivity. She could see her entire body as a whole, chakra and flesh, and though she was embarrassed by how shameless and ugly she looked compared to refined women, it still turned her on to see herself like this.

Her eyes were squeezed closed now but with her Byakugan activated, she could still see clearly everything around her, every inch of her own body. She dragged her other hand down over her chest, working under her unzipped coat, lightly brushing, just bumping the underside of...then moving further down, skipping over to her inner thighs, all the way down to her knees, then back up again. Leaning back further into the soft blankets, her coat hanging open, she slowly rocked side to side. Her back started to bow, muscles tensing and releasing savagely. Hypersensitive now, every finger touch felt like a knife of pleasure, every stroke a bolt of lightning made of ecstasy – even the slight movement of her chest from breathing set her body on fire.

Her anticipation increased enormously as she watched her own growing orgasm in her deep chakra systems while at the same time saw her physical body covered in sweat and her legs starting to shake. Eventually she stopped holding herself at the edge and allowed her body to fall off the cliff and reach the end, one hand violently clutched to her chest, the other between her legs. Her heels slammed into the floor, toes clenched into knots.

She saw her entire body convulse and seem to explode in her vision with light, then her mind shut down as well as her Byakugan. When she came to, she simply lay there and shook for minutes – she didn't know how many – this time with a different emotion and with her mind and body on fire.

After the last waves of comforting pleasure had drifted away, Hinata carefully cleaned herself up. Her limbs were still numb and boneless feeling as she sighed deeply, able at last to relax completely. Checking the area with her Byakugan one last time, she finally started to drift off to sleep, her hand again gripping the kunai under the covers, but now steady as a rock.


	3. Chapter 3

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Well, he'd just won their first sparing match and looked good doing it. But, on the other hand, well...he couldn't feel his other hand anymore. Hinata was lying in the dust, riddled with senbon but still quite alive. He was almost untouched, excluding his numb arm, but wasn't looking forward to their next match. Seemed like he still had some work to do figuring out the weaknesses of the Byakugan or defeating Neji would remain a dream.

"If this is the slacker princess heiress of the Hyūga, how much stronger is their number-one genius?" he wondered.

It had started out really disappointing for the Uchiha heir. Hinata had met him at training ground #72 for their first match, on time if a little reluctantly. It was a sunny day with not a cloud in the sky and he was ready to fight. He was also ready to call everything off if this didn't get more interesting very quickly.

Sasuke didn't say a word, merely glowering at Hinata as she walked up. "So incredibly weak," he thought, watching her knees shake as she closed the distance. He was surprised she'd actually showed up at all, half-assuming the Hyūga might just give-up and go hide for a while instead. She stood there, hands worrying each other in front of her coat, seemingly unsure what to do. "Might as well get this over with," he thought.

"Begin," he barked. She jumped as if electrocuted.

They were facing off in an open area away from the training posts and river. The grass was marred by repeated use but it was otherwise featureless. Hinata was still dressed in that stupid coat gray and blue capri pants, with no weapons pouches or scrolls of any kind visible. How did she hope to beat him without any ranged weapons of any kind? As she finally took a wobbly stance, Sasuke tried to figure out how to make this anything but a waste of his time.

Not even bothering to take a ready stance himself, he simply activated his Sharingan and waited, hands loose at his sides. With all his practice before the chūnin finals, he could now essentially keep it on all the time (the chakra drain was now that low), but the headaches that much use caused weren't worth it outside a mission. He might not need it now, but he knew it was really intimidating. It was funny to see her eyes (Byakugan still not activated) grow wide – so, definitely worth it.

She didn't seem to know how to respond and simply stood there in her shaky stance. Still, he waited. Beating on a weak little girl wouldn't be educational at all – he needed her to activate her eyes and actually attack him. He slowly raised one hand (noticing her flinch even at that) and pointed directly at her. She shivered, but just seemed confused. He then turned his hand palm-up, formed a partial fist, and gestured her over with his index finger, a smirk on his face.

She frowned but started forward slowly, holding her stance. He lowered his hands and shook his head, slowly forming a seal, then simply shunshined to another side of the clearing, flanking her to one side. She quickly adjusted her facing, but didn't attempt to actually intercept him. As she started forward slowly again, he again made a negative motion and gestured her forward with his entire hand, turning it into a mocking wave.

Eyebrows knitted together, she dropped her stance and started running forward at a pathetic speed. He scoffed loudly and immediately sent a handful of shuriken straight at the dark-haired genin, his hands a blur, causing her to shriek and dodge to the side, barely avoiding the speeding blades. She looked back up at him surprised, hands held defensively in front of her body. So useless, he thought.

Sighing deeply, he again flicked his hand, a kunai burying itself inches from her feet. She still didn't get it for a few seconds then finally picked up the knife awkwardly. Looking even more bored, Sasuke casually threw more shuriken, watching as she continued to barely avoid them, having to deflect several with the borrowed kunai and wildly running sideways to present the hardest to hit target. Correct for evasion, but not gaining her any ground – there was no way she would win this way.

"Activate your Byakugan and fight, you idiot," he growled at last. "What use are you if you can't even close with your enemy?"

She stumbled to a halt, clutching the knife in front of her, gulping down air in quick gasps. "Attack me or leave, weakling," he said. Hinata clutched the knife tighter and glared at him. "Good," he thought, "she's finally actually getting angry. Or whatever useless, flower-based emotions weak little kunoichi have in its place."

Ah, now she was charging him again. Still no shunshin or chakra-enhanced steps, just running straight at him. At least Naruto tried to use clones to run around you or hide inside a cloud of clones or throw clones at you or disguise clones as weapons and...throw them at you. Well, mostly he used lots of clones, but he used them _offensively_.

This time, he just stood and let her come. When she was within a few yards, he threw a handful of senbon at her, hoping to knock her off balance. In an instant, her eyes activated and she dodged straight through the speeding needles, closing into taijutsu range while throwing the kunai at him. He saw it coming a mile away and simply dodged it. Then she was in close range, hands empty but still dangerous.

Her first strike was fast and aimed at his shoulder, but looked like it was part of a kata and sort of reflexively thrown out there for no reason – it was easy to dodge with minimal movement using his Sharingan and his straight counter-punch rocked her back on her heels as she took it clumsily on a cross-block. A rapid series of blows caused him to take a few steps back but none actually hit and he stopped backing away and started blocking them.

She made a snake-like strike at his arm, but he saw it coming and was already throwing a short kick at her right leg. Dancing away, she suddenly no longer had a leg there and was crouching to (his Sharingan spin furiously, showing him all he subtle muscle twitches) strike at his leg with her right hand, index finger, three inches up his calf. Before her hand had moved more than an inch forward, his leg was already rotating away, his body sliding and spinning sideways in snap cartwheel. Her altered strike missed his body by two inches.

A fraction of a second after he started his next counter attack with his other leg (a powerful kick to her shoulder) he realized she was prepared for that and would simply shift four inches to her left and disable his entire leg. "Ah," he thought, "so _that_ is why no one kicks a Jūken user – a single mistake and you are fighting on one leg."

Turning the kick into a one-quarter feint (she flinched and started the counter he predicted, only to see the attack withdrawn), he continued to skid sideways then suddenly anchored himself with one foot, swinging around to Hinata's back. The two punch combo he used went directly over her deeply bowed head and back as she easily dodged the attack. Then she was spinning around and striking at him with both hands in an upward-sweeping move, like a crashing wave. There had been no hesitation and she had reacted as if she had eyes in the back of her head.

The two tomoe in each of Sasuke eyes continued to spin faster and faster, his senses stretching out and her chakra presence growing clearer. He could see strange possibilities stretching out from her tensed limbs. Attacks which would wound or kill him, depending on how much power she used and if they hit. It was beginning to feel like he was boxed in, only a few moves resulting in anything but failure. Her hands were _fast_. He dodged a few halfhearted attacks, working a retreating defense to try and draw out more of her taijutsu technique while avoiding disabled limbs, or worse.

He hadn't landed any telling blows on her yet but she was already starting to flag – this intense defense and all the failed jūken strikes seemed to take a lot out of her. He'd been able to see every strike coming so far and she wasn't significantly faster than he was. Well, her strikes were faster but she moved on her feet like a sleepy cow, only less aggressive. Sasuke tried to think how best to end this depressingly bad spar. Maybe he should demonstrate that ninjas needed to use techniques more complicated and dangerous than flower-arranging and specialized clan taijutsu.

Gripping the ground with his chakra through his feet, he suddenly disengaged. Hinata simply stood there like a stunned pigeon as he removed her only advantage, not even attempting to re-engage by closing the distance again. Shaking his head, he took a short breath, formed some quick hand seals, and shot a small burst of flame at her, mostly aimed at the ground in front of her. Not enough to do any actual damage – a quickly opened stove was almost as hot – but it was distracting and smoky.

He threw some shuriken into the smoke and flames immediately and then hopped diagonally back while firing a couple of spreads of senbon at her previous location, carefully aimed to fly past her into the ground if they missed. He was sure she could see through the flames but needed to know how far she could see all around her, hence the plan: if she could see him throw them, she'd dodge. If she couldn't see him and didn't see the weapons in time (as they were small and fast) she'd take some hits.

He bounced sideways into a tree, holding still for a second. Eyes spinning, he analyzed the ground beyond the smoke cloud. Time seemed to wind back and he could almost see a ghostly Hinata in the smoke, dodging some needles, taking hits from others, leaving dodged senbon...there, there, and...there. Taking that information, he plotted his approach carefully to avoid what he guessed was her maximum Byakugan's range. Landing again and shunshining carefully around behind her he prepared to end this match.

Hinata stumbled backward out of the cloud of smoke, a few senbon dotting her arms, crouching and remaining totally still, staring straight ahead. Yep, he'd ranged her 360-degree vision correctly. Shunshining directly at her, then again slightly to her off-hand side, he wound up for a knife-handed finger strike – exactly like the Chidori, just without the lightning release. He didn't actually want to kill the stupid little idiot, after all. Someone might get mad at him. Maybe.

But she spotted him the second he was within range. He saw the muscle groups to her hands flex, her shoulders move, her hips shift, her feet twitch, and the likely moves like ghosts around her limbs. Too slow, though. So many rejected moves already started. Her even _thinking_ about her response was far too slow for this speed, his speed. His eyes could see the results, tracking her arm as it came around. Then she shifted her hips again and he saw something that blew his plan out of a tree.

Her hidden hand was already moving forward, palm out and aimed directly at his chest – he could see the chakra surrounding it but there was no knowing what that would do to him. His options were rapidly falling away. It was too late now. He would hit her but not with a killing blow, so she would also get her strike in, and a jūken to the chest was no laughing matter. She might not be good enough to safely use that in a spar and he couldn't take that chance. There had to be a way out, though. He frantically went over the possibilities again, finding nothing. He couldn't win as it was. If that connected, she'd score the win as his body hit the ground, either stunned or lifeless. So he changed the problem.

Fine, he would take the hit, but on his _arm_. The fake-Chidori would be a strike to her solar plexus, dropping her like a rock, and winning him the match. She'd adjust her strike to his off-hand parry, most likely disabling his arm, but that wouldn't stop his body blow from landing.

Sasuke nudged his body to one side, whipping up his other arm to block. She moved targets and struck it, causing more pain than Sasuke was expecting, but he simply took it and continued with his attack as the arm grew limp. Then his other hand, fingers stuff, connected with her midsection. Everything was in slow-motion to his eyes: her soft flesh absorbing the blow, tiny body flexing, bending over; her feet losing traction as she flew backward, her legs losing control and folding; her arms wrapping around her torso as she doubled-over in pain; her knees hitting the ground, then her shoulders. He saw her Byakugan's chakra fall away just as her head hit the ground, her face turning away from him.

He bounced back two large steps, his right arm (hit three inches above the elbow) hanging useless and tingly at his side. His Sharingan started spinning down, still active but no longer running wild as time seemed to return to normal. Hinata was gagging and gasping on the ground, arms wrapped around herself, totally defeated. He carefully moved away, keeping an eye on her and not turning his back, then sat down on a tree stump at the edge of the clearing. She'd thrown up by now and was making some choking and spitting noises, one hand still around her stomach, the other shakily propping her up off the ground.

Sasuke had arranged his arm so it wasn't obvious his right wasn't working – he couldn't show any weakness in case she wanted to try attacking him again in revenge. He didn't know if she knew the attack had connected and done damage, so his arms were carefully propped on his legs. He kept a very close eye on his opponent, who still struggled in the dirt.

He briefly considered the differences in two jūken users sparing and one doing the same with anyone else, especially someone able to predict their moves. The chest strike she had aimed at him would likely have beat any other, lesser jūken strike if he hadn't seen it coming. It had been a hidden-blade strike, obscured by her body and perfectly disguised until it was too late. Her target had been the center of his chest, his heart. His solar plexus blow against her wouldn't have been crippling if it had actually been a jūken strike, though it might have done deep tissue damage.

About a minute later, she was still half sitting up, picking senbon and a few shuriken out of her arms and sides. Her back was still to him and she was avoiding looking back at him. Once she'd finished cleaning herself up, she attempted to stand, failing several times before her legs would hold her up again. Her shoulders heaved a few times as she tried to straighten up fully, then she gave that up and stayed half crouched, arms still wrapped around her stomach. She swayed in place for awhile before stumbling out of the training area, still not looking back at him, leaving the blood-smeared weapons next to a pile of vomit.

* * *

Sitting in his office at a low, traditionally-styled table, Hiashi Hyūga reviewed the latest in a long line of disappointing reports on his eldest daughter, the last item left to deal with that night. According to branch house bodyguards, she had been involved in a violent but entirely legal spar with another genin. That the genin was the Uchiha heir only made it more embarrassing for his clan.

It was a secret report (which meant that the clan elders would take an entire day to find out about it) and Hiashi didn't like to think how they'd react to her complete defeat at the hands of a hated Uchiha. He didn't have anything against the now-almost-dead clan, but the older members of the elders council had gone though the ugly inner-clan conflicts 60 years ago and were still bitter about it.

Once they found out, Hinata's life was in even more danger. Though they wouldn't be open about it, the elders were not happy about the current clan heir, seeing her as weak, but not weak in a way they could easily manipulate, and also uselessly kind-hearted. That she also seemed to harbor pro-branch house feelings, including disapproving of the clan's cursed seal, only increased their dislike of the gentle young girl. This latest revelation might speed up Hiashi's timetable and force his hand.

He had to remove Hinata from the clan leadership inheritance track, officially making her sister Hanabi the next and only conceivable heir. The old men wouldn't like it if Hinata's children were ever even possible contenders for the position, as that could create a succession fight that would tear the clan apart. That the branch house might support her kin in such a fight firmed up their resolve in removing the danger his eldest daughter represented.

Hinata thankfully wouldn't have to receive the cursed seal if she was somehow disinherited or removed from the family, unlike his own twin brother, as the clan's leadership role and the very power of the eyes itself was passed down only through the male line. All they'd need to do is make sure a Hyūga didn't marry her and she'd be safe. Or at least as safe as a silly child playing ninja could be.

It was peculiar that at this time, this very day, his gentle daughter had finally started showing some of the forcefulness required of a leader. It was too little too late, though, and not in a manner appealing to the stoic Hyūga elders. The minutes-old report on her trashing her room was quite strange. She'd left palm-holes in the walls, a kunai stuck in a ceiling joist, and smears of blood on the carpet and in the bathroom.

Panicked servants discovering this had almost immediately found her asleep, self-bandaged, and hidden in her closet clutching a kunai. For some reason, Hinata had left the privacy symbol off her door when she had returned earlier, otherwise they might not have tried to clean the room and wouldn't have discovered her. Coming to a conclusion, he sent back an order to the servants to leave her alone, trusting Hinata to take care of herself as she always did.

He sighed deeply but silently to himself. "At least she didn't stab anyone this time," he thought grimly. The last time she'd forgotten the symbol, a servant had come in to drop off some laundry and had been injured in the leg by a surprised Hinata. The odd girl had been hiding in the closet with a knife taking a nap and hadn't recognized the poor woman. The house servants now treated her room as a hostile battlefield, making sure to clap at the door and loudly announce themselves, checking every corner and activating their Byakugan just in case to scan everywhere, even when the privacy symbol wasn't in place. When it was, they usually didn't dare enter, simply waiting until she took it down as she left her quarters.

She brought fear to the hearts of her servants, but such bizarre behavior wasn't enough to show the inner strength of character required to serve as clan head. Hinabi was strong and reserved and would be accepted by the elders but Hinata still needed protecting. It was a good thing he'd already worked out a plan that could be modified to fix this situation, one that should keep his beloved daughter safe and also help to resolve his other, much stranger duties to a clan not his own. Leaning forward over the paperwork, he began the official documents that would change at least two young people's lives forever.

* * *

What felt like the hundredth stone corridor he'd wandered down (but must have been only into the second dozen) was where he'd hit the jackpot – a large wooden door at the end of the otherwise empty corridor with a metal plate on it, labeled "Library". Shoving the creaking door open, Sasuke saw endless lines of shelves with dusty scrolls, stretching out into the darkness. Searching around the entryway for a light, he finally found it and flicked it on.

The room was huge, more like a warehouse than a library. Since it was on the underground level behind the Sharingan-locked high-security door, he assumed it wasn't simply full of clan financial reports and birth records like some of the other storerooms, but rather something more dangerous: secret clan hideouts, jutsu technique scrolls, and other Uchiha treasures. This was even better than the huge underground training room, the bunker with hundreds of living quarters and food storage lockers (with preservation seals on them, keeping the food fresh), or the vault in the high-security area filled entirely with finely crafted weapons, all with the Uchiha clan symbol engraved on them.

Realizing he'd been holding his breath, Sasuke let it out in a long sigh and started wandering down the rows of shelves, protests from his aching legs ignored. He had hours until dinner, plenty of time to start exploring these new shelves. He knew that finding this hidden inheritance would change his life forever.


	4. Chapter 4

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

The start of their second match had looked promising. He had once again been surprised to see her return, the very next day after their first spar and her complete defeat.

Hinata didn't say a word, just walked directly to the open field, hands clenched at her sides. She took a stance then waited for him to take his place at the other side of the clearing, Byakugan activated, her face a mask. This time, she was wearing an equipment pouch and seemed more ready. Her stance was firmer and she looked determined.

She had also apparently learned from her first session. The moment he said "begin," she charged him with a kunai drawn. She'd deflected most of the shuriken and almost reached him when he simply shunshined away and resumed pelting her with senbon and shuriken. She continued to run around on the ground at sadly slow speeds, chasing after him and attempting to close.

"Maybe she isn't able to use shunshin in combat yet?" he thought. There were also no kawarimi attempts, the obvious counter to some of his ultra-fast, high-volume ranged attacks.

After about three minutes of being used as a pincushion, she simply threw down her kunai and stumbled out of the training ground. She had been bleeding from several moderately deep shuriken hits, but he hadn't been putting any chakra into either the blades or his arm to strengthen his hits, so nothing would have been seriously damaged. Still, they were real weapons and left real wounds. He wasn't expecting her the next day.

So of course she showed up the next day, ready to spar again. Her hands were wrapped in white bandages, as were her ankles and lower calves, the bandages disappearing up under her pants and down her arms and under her coat. Her neck was wrapped as well, with some medical tape covering cuts on her face.

Hinata had dark circles under her eyes now and she moved like she was sleepwalking. As well as being covered in bandages, she seemed to be limping a little. Sasuke decided he'd try some close combat again – there was no point in a repeat of yesterday. Activating his Sharingan he sighed. It might be that bad anyway, it looked like a strong breeze would knock her over. She wasn't even holding her kunai this time. He took out one of his own, intending to force her into a knife fight.

He said "Begin" and she was suddenly two feet in front of him. His eyes had tracked her shunshin, three quick bursts of speed, with her hands folded into the single seal. In his sped-up vision, her hands were slowly separating, snapping toward his body, two striking snakes. Her eyes were as fully activated as his now, veins standing out on her face. He could see time slow down and stared at the sight before him.

Chakra slowly leaked out of her eyes, pumped by the bulging veins on her temples. Her short hair was streaming out almost horizontal behind her, whipping in the wind of her impossibly fast travel. Hinata's mouth was a thin line, lips paled, and her brow was furrowed in concentration. Deadly hands were slowly, painfully slowly, reaching out to his shoulders, glowing with chakra – a combo strike to end this fight instantly. He could see his own defeat looming in the perfection of her technique.

For the tiniest fraction of a second, his new curse mark burned on his neck like ice and fire and poison, dark power trying to pry against Kakashi's seal and almost causing him to flinch. Weeks of training took over and he instantly reasserted his will – no damn snake Sannin pervert's hickey was interfering with _his_ fight. Itachi hadn't had to use someone else's power to grow strong and nether would he. He would find a way to win on his own and prove his strength!

It was too late to shunshin away – she was too close and there wasn't time to mold the chakra. Hell, she might be fast enough to intercept anyway. A kawarimi similarly needed proper preparation – he still couldn't do one instantly and without seals, like Kakashi, without planning and molding chakra ahead of time. He also couldn't slip away with chakra enhanced traction having been caught flat-footed. But she was slightly, ever so slightly, over extended. His kunai was still in his hand. Quick, almost instant calculation: yes. He could do this. This first strike was a strong one, but he could survive it. The problem was her follow up at close range. He didn't have a shot at a truly disabling body blow – even if a fatal blow with his knife was allowed, it wasn't a sure thing – so preventing that inevitable second, follow-up jūken strike was his goal. It was possible but it would hurt, hopefully her more than him. His Shringan spun wildly, showing him his way out.

Once again, Sasuke twisted his body, avoiding and blocking one strike with his off-hand while fully expecting that arm to be disabled with the follow up. The kunai in his left hand whipped up and he stabbed Hinata's striking right hand, holding onto the blade now anchoring her in place and reducing her maneuverability. Thus held, he had one last strike to make before he lost use of his right arm, so he made the only move he had time for: he throw a zero-windup right jab straight into her left tit, as hard as he could.

The idea for that strike wasn't a very chivalrous one, true, but he'd seen how effective it was in his last year of the Academy during sparing practice. Chōji, goaded into actually throwing punches for once, was sparing with Ino. The 12 year old girl wasn't exactly well developed in the chest area compared to some of the older genin teenagers, but was still considered "rookie of the year" among the females in his class with what she did have.

Poor Chōji had accidentally tagged her on her boob, a complete mistake as most of the boys were a little leery of striking their female classmates anywhere but the arms, legs, and shoulders. Not very good practice, but the fear of being embarrassed or worse, being ripped apart by angry young kunoichi for taking advantage of them in a spar, was greater than both their and their instructor's common sense.

Chōji's eyes had actually been closed and it was not a very strong strike, but Ino still yelled in shock, body hunching around the injury immediately. Then the instructors had to keep Ino and the rest of the girls from beating a confused and scared Chōji unconscious. Sasuke didn't think the fa-...err, "husky" boy even understood what he'd done wrong.

Interestingly, Hinata's coat seemed to have been obscuring hidden...attributes. Resisting pausing to grope someone in the middle of a spar was not officially part of his Academy training, but didn't seem like a good idea. However, it was obvious she was much better developed than he had expected. Not that any of that mattered to the him as he was about to lose function and feeling in that arm.

The expected disabling strike still took out his right shoulder, but then she immediately tried to pull away from the knife stabbing into her hand. Her entire body jerked back from the blow to her chest and her shoulder rolled reflexively to protected her abused breast. All thought of follow-up attacks left her mind as a look of shock exploded on her face. Sasuke heard her gasp and say something that sounded suspiciously like "fuck!" as her un-stabbed hand went to cover the lesser, but more insulting, injury.

Letting go of his kunai, still embedded in Hinata's right hand, Sasuke finally had the opportunity to take a couple of chakra enhanced slides back, giving him the space to survive. Reaching for a special pouch, he pulled out his secret weapon. Hinata was regaining her balance and starting to make moves toward him again, pulling the kunai out of her hand as she ran. Time to shut that down.

Seven kunai with ninja wire attached flew from Sasuke's left hand in quick succession but his right arm now hung useless at his side, slowing down and complicating the move. Hinata wasn't so out of it that she didn't dodge all seven, but she appeared to be too distracted to notice the hidden danger. Taking her hand off her bruised breast, breath ragged and an actual snarl on her face, she started to make the shunshin hand seal again. If he hadn't been about to win in less than a second, Sasuke might have been intimidated and even impressed.

Grabbing one set of the hidden wires in his mouth, stomping another into the ground with an eighth kunai he'd dropped earlier, and holding the third in his left hand, he yanked on all while quickly dashing back again. The wires attached to his kunai whipped around, briefly confusing even the Byakugan with the complex net of metal. Hinata shouted and thrashed briefly as her body was wrapped in the ninja wire trap.

Sasuke cursed quietly, seeing her right arm was still free. He couldn't send fire down the wires (far too dangerous) nor electricity. No killing strikes possible due to the rules of the spar and she was still on her feet, so he couldn't even claim a knockdown point. He couldn't hit her with anything else without letting go of the wires. "Shit!" he thought, seeing her start to _saw through_ his ninja wire with her bare hands. That shouldn't be possible!

Hinata's free hand moved blisteringly fast, not cutting the wires around her body but the ones behind her, attached to the ground and keeping her in place. With those cut, she started running straight at him again without interference, one arm still bound at her side but rapidly being freed with her other hand, blue chakra flickering over her fingers.

Taking a deep breath, he dropped the wires in his still-functioning left hand and pulled out a full brace of a half-dozen flash bombs, setting them to a single second delay with a burst of chakra. But by that time, Hinata had closed most of the distance to him and had both arms free again with her hands forming the shunshin seal.

He meant to throw the bombs next to Hinata while closing his eyes to avoid the blinding flashbomb explosion, but he couldn't do that with her on the move and ready to shunshin. His mind raced and his eyes spin, but he didn't see how he could win this fight without blinding both himself and Hinata. So he simply dropped the bombs at his feet, eyes still wide open. Hinata shunshined within two feet of him before they hit the ground.

The bombs went off, chakra and specialized fireworks blinding both chakra senses and normal vision. Hinata screamed. Someone else, him maybe, was also screaming but in a much more manly way. "Good Kami," he thought, "that really fucking hurts!"

Everything was white and he couldn't see Hinata now but he knew where she was less than a tenth of a second ago. He struck out with his left leg, hitting her a glancing blow on the shoulder. Sharingan still active, he found he was able to predict a rough location for her face and blindly sent his working fist at it, connecting with the side of her face. As predicted, he thought, starting to smirk.

And then both of her fists started slamming into his head, one after the other, each blow followed by a whimpering grunt from Hinata as she hit him as hard as she could. Not jūken strikes, just basic, Academy-approved closed-fist bricks to the side of his head. "She's actually surprisingly strong," he thought, head ringing from the blows he wasn't able to deflect with his arms, "but it is time to finally end this."

Again using some minor part of the Sharingan, he found her location based on the way she was beating on his face – the vectors of force showing his mind's eye (his physical ones were still burning in pain) the general location he needed to hit. Wrapping his left hand and arm around her right arm as she predictably came in for another strike – a problem with regular and organized blows like this was the Sharingan could predict them quite well – he stepped in with a devastating rising knee to her stomach. Not waiting to see how effective it was and still half-way off the ground, he continued to slide his working hand up to the collar of her coat, griping it firmly. He then blindly brought her head down into his other knee with a jerk and immediately felt her nose crunch against his leg. Slightly off target, but still disabling. Pushing off her awkwardly with on leg, he flipped backward and away. Somehow, he got his feet under himself and managed to land with only a slight stumble.

Trying to remember exactly where he was, he skipped back a dozen steps and waited for his sight to return, leaving the Sharingan on in case it could help him pick up some clues from his other senses. Standing perfectly still, he heard a body hit the ground with a thud. He'd won the spar, he guessed.

Standing there, feeling blood drip down his chin from a split lip, he reviewed the fight in his head. The perfect Sharingan memory, at least up to the point he blinded himself, was telling. He had almost lost that one, even though Hinata had looked and moved like shit. "Woo, go me," he thought sarcastically, "I beat up a half-dead, flower-loving, weak little kunoichi and only _almost_ lost the fight." If this had been a real battle, her teammates would have killed him, he knew. Standing there blinded, he would be dead in moments.

Sighing as his vision finally started to return, he looked over to where Hinata lay on the ground in a heap of ninja wire and dust. The Sharingan told him she was not unconscious but he couldn't immediately tell what she was doing or how injured she was. She was folded on her side, legs akimbo on the ground, arms hugged to her body.

And back heaving.

Because she was crying silently.

"Damn it. Ninjas don't cry, little girls cry. Fuck," he realized, "I beat up a little girl and made her cry. Now what?"

* * *

_**Author's note****s****: **This chapter was entirely fights and comes in a little short. Posting along with the next chapter for some plot development goodness. I've also got some notes on my style choices in my Profile. Interesting, but plot and character discussion free._


	5. Chapter 5

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

How to greet the Hokage at a formal event; what bribes were needed to enter a civilian village disguised as a black market merchant; which knives were best for use in pit traps. Sasuke had learned all this and more from the Academy and the many, many tutors assigned to him after his entire clan was slaughtered. What they _hadn't_ taught him was how to deal with a crying girl you just stabbed and kicked in the face. He didn't think it was covered in any of his formal etiquette classes, unless maybe he'd been napping through class that day.

Sighing deeply, he went to his backpack to retrieve his first aid kit one-handed. He didn't think she was in any danger from the minor injuries she'd received but leaving the Hyūga heiress all alone, lying bleeding on the ground, might cause trouble for him.

Reactivating his Sharingan before approaching the Hyūga seemed only prudent, though it looked like the fight was completely out of the girl. She was still slumped bonelessly on the ground weeping, only stopping when she heard his approach. She pulled herself into a sitting position with her uninjured hand – shoulders slumped, quietly coughing and sniffling through her broken nose.

Stopping a few feet away he waited, pack in hand. Eventually, she coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, then turned to look at him warily from the corner of her eye.

"You need to have that hand bandaged immediately," he said flatly, "Then we need to go get fixed up at the hospital."

She started to shake her head, then winced from the pain and turned her head away again. He saw her Byakugan was disabled, so it was at least marginally safer to approach her. Naruto and Sakura didn't get aggressive after losing a spar or getting hurt, but he had no idea what Hinata would do now. She looked so weak but he wasn't taking any risks.

Walking around in front of her, he knelt down and held out the medical pouch to her.

"Hold this with your good hand, I only have one working arm right now." he said.

She looked around again quickly and seemed confused, but shifted slightly and grabbed the bag, moving on automatic. Searching it briefly one-handed, he pulled out a couple of pillboxes, a bottle, and a sealed set of clean bandages. Putting the stuff down on a relatively clean bit of grass, he took back the bag from her, set it aside, then awkwardly gathered a couple of pills from the boxes. Handing them to Hinata, he said, "Pain reliever and low-dose blood pill. Take these. Now."

Hand trembling a bit, she took the pills from him and put them in her bloodstained mouth. She then started and swayed slightly when she saw Sasuke was already holding out his canteen. She took it and drank deeply, swallowing the pills, then took another swing and spat to one side, not noticing she was getting blood on everything and also missing his cringe at the state of her face. Her nose was clearly broken, crushed and leaning to one side, her eyes rapidly turning puffy and swollen. The lower half was covered in blood, a deep red soaking her upper jacket and parts of the ground.

After Sasuke pointed at it, she noticed the stab wound in her hand was also leaking slowly. Not understanding, Hinata simply looked confused and clutched the wounded hand to her body, continuing to drip blood on her pants.

"Give me your hand." he growled, ignoring her discomfort and tear-stained face. She looked frightened, but complied, holding out the injured limb timidly. Uncapping the bottle one-handed, Sasuke reached over and poured it liberally over her hand, flushing out the wound. It stung horribly, and she jerked her hand back reflexively, gasping. Quickly looking ashamed, she hung her head and held the hand out again, quietly saying, "Sorry."

"Hn," he replied, turning the hand over and cleaning and disinfecting the other side. She squeaked in pain again but didn't move back this time. He glared at her then put the bottle down and recapped it. Sighing again, he shook the white bandages loose, then and placed the pad on her hand.

"Hold this here." he said shortly, glaring at her, his Sharingan still activated. She flinched again but took her free hand and held the cloth in place as he started to wrap the bandage snugly around the wound, securing another pad on the other side of her hand. Finishing up with some tape sloppily applied one handed, he repacked the kit then gathered up the rest of his equipment in the backpack. Moving to her side again, he said, "I will clean up the training ground later. For now, we need to get to the hospital. Your face is a mess and you don't heal as fast as my idiot teammate."

He had grabbed her upper arm and yanked her to her feet before she realized what he'd said.

"Na'u'o ge's 'ur' a lo'?" she squeaked through her busted nose, her look of worry combined with her bloodstained face making Sasuke really uncomfortable for some reason.

"Hn," he replied, not attempting to reassure her. Deactivating his Sharingan at last, he started to half-drag her down the path out of the forested training area, back toward the center of town. She seemed really distracted now, he wasn't sure why. Tired of seeing her dripping bloody face, he let go of her arm and handed her a clean cloth.

"Clean up a little. You'll scare the civilians. Try to hold this to your nose if it doesn't hurt too bad." he said. She took it, again surprised, tried her best to wipe off some of the blood, then gingerly pressed it to her nose.

They walked in silence, Hinata staggering a little, Sasuke with one arm hanging uselessly. Most of the villagers ignored them, though a few civilian fangirls gave Hinata dirty looks. Whether for walking so close to Sasuke or because they assumed (correctly) that she was the reason Sasuke had two black eyes and a split lip, the glares they give her were venomous. The ninjas casually walking down the street totally ignored them.

They finally reached the hospital and stumbled through the walk-in entrance. All active duty personnel got priority treatment over the civilian walk-ins, so Hinata just had to fill out some paperwork to get bumped toward the front of the line. Given that she was from a very powerful clan, they didn't have long to wait before nurses were swarming over them.

Sasuke eventually successfully refused treatment for his minor facial bruising from the slightly disturbingly attentive nurses. They took Hinata back to get her face fixed while Sasuke sulked in the waiting room, trying to hide in the corner behind a magazine. He didn't know why he waited for her, he thought it was just what one did after breaking a girl's face.

A huge forehead and glowing, eye-burningly pink hair approaching almost gave him the warning he needed to escape, but he was too slow.

"Sasuke-kun! Are you hurt? Why are you in the hospital?!" shrieked the pink-haired harpy. Sasuke tried to ignore her, continuing to read about...Fire Country traditional home furnishings for the den? Whatever. A chair was dragged rapidly across the floor, thumping into place next to his.

"Sasuke-kuuuun!" she bellowed, directly into his ear. He dropped the magazine into his lap, glaring at his pink-haired, idiot teammate (that he had to specify in his mind by hair color was sad). She was leaning into his personal space, eager hands molesting his chair arms.

"Sakura," he said, briefly, continuing to glare.

"Sasuke-kun, your face!" she screamed, inches away, horror overwhelming her. He realized he must still look pretty bad. "Ugh," he protested, trying to lean away, "Quiet. I'm fine."

"What happened, Sasuke-kun!?" she demanded, frantically, hands drifting dangerously close to his face. Batting her away repeatedly, he sneered nastily. "Training, of course. Not that a weakling like you would understand."

Shocked by his strong reaction, Sakura pulled back, actually sitting in her chair instead of crawling all over Sasuke's. A puzzled look fell over her face, and she sat thinking for a few minutes. He ignored her and stared at the wall.

"Why aren't you getting treated for that, Sasuke-kun? It looks painful," she eventually said.

"Hn," he responded.

"I can get the paperwork for you-" she started before he interrupted.

"No."

"Then why are you here?" she asked again, confused.

"Waiting on someone," he responded honestly, not thinking. Sakura's eyebrows flew straight up her huge forehead. "What? Who could you..." she started. Sasuke suddenly stood up and walked away. "I'm going to see Kakashi-sensei," he said, moving quickly away from the idiot fangirl.

Using the weak excuse to get away from the pink-haired leech, he took the time to ask after Kakashi. He was still in a coma as expected. Sasuke spent the rest of the time hiding near the admissions desk, reviewing the perfect memories of all his fights with the young Hyūga and trying to figure out what was bugging him at them.

His right arm had finally regained full feeling and motion by the time Hinata came back. She was mostly cleaned up, her face looking a little red and raw but otherwise repaired by the chakra-based healing from the medical staff. Her nose was straight and undamaged and it looked like the bandages on her arms and legs had also been removed, the shuriken injuries from the other day also fully healed. "Only the best for the useless Hyūga heiress," he thought, "Directly to the front of the line, even for minor injuries."

He glared at her and pointed to her right hand, waiting impatiently until she held it up for him to inspect. Ignoring her confused looks and embarrassed red face, he checked the healed hand, seeing only a slightly pale-pink discoloration where the stab wound had been. She gasped at his touch when he grabbed her hand to look at it and stifled a squeak when his fingers touched her face and moved her chin from side to side to inspect those injuries.

"Hn," he said, releasing her hand and turning to leave. Hinata stood gaping with her hand still held out, face flushed, staring at his retreating back.

Neither noticed a pink-haired kunoichi lurking in the shadows, clutching a crumpled genin medical training program application form.

* * *

The next day, Sasuke was back at training ground #72, once again not expecting to see Hinata. So of course she showed up.

She was once again hiding behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, watching him train. "Shit," he thought, "she's going full fangirl." A least he'd gotten a chance to beat this one up first. People would frown on that, usually. She was wearing the same coat and capri pants combo as yesterday, these without huge bloodstains, though. "Does she have any other outfits?" he wondered.

Once again stopping his practice, Sasuke sat down on a log and waiting, glaring at where Hinata was lurking. The girl eventually tiptoed over and stood in front of him, fidgeting with her fingers. Still glaring, he quietly waited.

"A-ano, Uchiha-san..." she started hesitantly. He stared at her. "I-I still w-want to know w-where Naruto-kun is!" she blurted out frantically.

"Hn," he said.

"I k-know I c-can't b-beat you, U-Uchiha-san," she stammered, "b-but I-I still want to h-help Naruto-kun."

"I, I, I want to b-become stronger," she almost whispered.

Sasuke propped his elbows on his knees and folded his hands under his chin, staring at Hinata and thinking rapidly.

"Why?" he asked, bluntly.

"A...ano..." she started, fingers fidgeting in front of her. Sasuke waited, staring at her coldly. After a minute of stammering, she seemed to get a hold of herself, clenching her fists at her sides and braving his glares by looking him in the eyes.

"I...I w-want to help N-Naruto-kun achieve his goals," she stammered, but less so than usual. A certain firmness had entered her speech that had been missing before. "A-and I w-want to prove I c-can become stronger and n-not be useless or a burden."

Sasuke raised one eyebrow slowly, quizzically.

"So?" he asked cruelly, a smirk on his lips.

She stood there shaking, this time from anger, clenched knuckles turning white. "H-how can you be so mean?" she suddenly yelled at him, surprising Sasuke and wiping the smirk off his face. "H-how can you treat your t-teammate like this?"

"Because I see him as a shinobi of Konoha, not a child," he shot back. "He is in a dangerous situation and doesn't need weaklings dragging him down."

Hinata started to deflate, arms wrapping around her middle, her head hanging, staring at the ground. She seemed on the verge of tears again, but at least she wasn't running away. "Maybe I can do something with this," he thought. It could be months before the team was back together and training with a strong taijutsu user would be good for becoming faster and more powerful, specifically towards the goal of eventually beating Neji and Naruto. He'd have to switch to a long-term plan, though, and get her to attend regular practice sessions.

"How do you train?" he asked quietly.

"W-wha?" she said, not seeming to understand.

"Tell me your training schedule."

"A-ano...I t-train with my t-team four times a w-week, with t-two days for s-same-day m-missions and one day off," she said hesitantly.

"Hn," he responded, waiting. She fidgeted some more but didn't continue.

"Well?" he demanded, causing her to jump. "What about private training time?"

"B-but, I...I..." she stammered.

"Surely you train by yourself or with your clan outside of team sessions?" he asked, amazed.

"Y-yes, o-once a m-month I t-train with m-my f-father," she stammered out. "I u-used to t-train with h-him m-more o-often b-but he d-doesn't want t-to any m-more," she said, almost whispering. "H-he t-trains my s-sister m-more n-now."

Sasuke found himself grinding his teeth, suddenly filled with rage. That was entirely too familiar to Sasuke. It sounded exactly like how his clan had been, giving preferential training to the brightest star and leaving the less gifted sibling to rot. He relaxed his hands where they'd been digging gouges into his palms and came to a resolution – he'd use this young Hyūga to improve his training, sure, but he'd also do his damnedest to hammer some self-confidence and actual ninja skills into her. The way things were right now, she was going to die before ever being promoted to chūnin, and it didn't seem like her clan cared.

"How you are right now, you are too weak to help anyone," he said. "Naruto is outside the village, protected by a very high-level Konoha shinobi. My sensei, Kakashi, was wounded in a fight against two nukenin who were after Naruto. That encounter involved four experienced Leaf jōnin, during the day, in the middle of Konoha. My sensei was seriously wounded in the attack. The enemy, however, was unwounded and able to retreat to attack Naruto again directly, at a nearby hotel. Naruto survived, apparently unwounded, and is currently under the protection of the shinobi who drove off Naruto's attackers the second time, a feat he managed single-handedly."

Hinata's eyes were wide and frightened. Sasuke continued his cold analysis. "There are at least two, most likely more, S-class nukenin after Naruto. We have one..._extremely_ powerful, Kage-level Leaf shinobi guarding Naruto. As it is now, the two of us are like insects against the power of any of them."

"You are an insect without even a stinger," he spat out, glaring at her still. Hinata seemed to fold into herself, staring at her feet and clutching at the edge of her coat. Sasuke lunged to his feat, activating his Sharingan as he stomped toward her. He pinned her in place with his eyes, his killing intent causing her to shake.

"Is it even possible for you to get stronger? Do you have the willpower? Are you able to grow strong enough to defeat the enemies of our village? Fight and wound and maim and kill, without remorse?" he fired off question after question, looming over her.

She was rocked back on her heels, looking ready to run at any moment, shaking and staring at her feet. Then she seemed to find that something inside that wouldn't give up, something he'd seen before and didn't entirely understand. Her hands stopped fidgeting and clenched into fists at her side.

"Maybe you do," Sasuke said quietly, "but you need more training than your sensei and clan are providing. What I face right now is this: my team is scattered and broken. My sensei is disabled and my remaining teammate useless, yet I still need to grow stronger. I need to become strong enough to kill a monster."

He paused briefly, considering. "I do not care what your goals are, only what you have the will to do. Strength will help you achieve them. You must become stronger. That is the only way to go forward, to protect people precious to you, to avoid losing your future and your life."

Sasuke paced back to his seat, leaning back and staring at Hinata from hooded, probing eyes, tomoe swirling.

"So, will you train with all your ability? Become strong enough to challenge my abilities so that I can grow stronger? Will you make this path of strength your way of the ninja?"

Gulping visibly, Hinata hissed out her answer quietly.

"Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Six**

After two more days of training with her, Sasuke had reached the conclusion that Hinata was simply better at taijutsu than he would ever be, assuming she kept improving at a similar rate.

Her complete lack of aggressive instincts were the only thing holding her back right now, and with practical experience (like sparring with an Uchiha genius) she'd be untouchable by an equal strength opponent very, very soon. At least against pure taijutsu, the jūken was simply invincible in a stand-up fight and she had trained in this style literally every day of her life. It showed. Only when up against another Hyūga, and an older or genius one at that, could she possibly think herself a weak close-range fighter.

The first day of training, he had demanded she run through all of her katas while he used his Sharingan. Maybe she didn't realize what he was doing, he didn't care. While he could now run through the moves of the style that she knew, he couldn't replicate the impossibly fine sensing and control required to hit tenketsu or the ability to expel chakra from his hands to hit the pinpoint targets. It did give him a better idea about how the style worked and how to counter it, though.

To his displeasure, however, she couldn't actually do the Hakkeshō Kaiten that Neji had in the chūnin exam finals – something the arrogant prick had called an "ultimate defense" and that Sasuke had been told looked, to quote Naruto, "awesome." Apparently, she knew how it worked but didn't have enough chakra or control yet to execute it. Disappointing, but it indicated what they needed to work on. Everyone needed more chakra, after all, and control made what you did have go further.

He'd planned out a ninjutsu and physical training program that had lasted all of 10 minutes before he ran into a wall – Hinata didn't know _any_ powerful jutsu yet. She had the Academy three: Henge, Kawarimi, and Bushin, and had earned top marks doing them, but that was it. Apparently, she had stayed up 24 hours straight trying to figure out how to use Shunshin in combat, just before their third sparing match.

Seems she hadn't liked being a slow-ass pincushion and had spent the time required to fix the flaw in her abilities. He approved, but she'd need more than that to actually fight other ninja in a pitched battle, where combat usually ended up being two-on-_you_ or worse.

He'd also learned she had no elemental training (she didn't even know her element) and no special ranged attacks. She could use kunai and shuriken well, again top marks in their class, but she hadn't expanded on the use of either. No fancy seals training (like Tenten and her weapons), general fūinjutsu training, weapons training, genjutsu, or special clan jutsu. Oh, she had some strange healing salves she'd worked out how to make. That was weird, but he guessed everyone needed a hobby. Still, he demanded an explanation.

"W-well, uhh, U-Uchiha-san," she stammered out, only a little calmer now that they were sort-of partners, "my f-father didn't want me failing any c-classes, I had t-to get good grades, but he wouldn't let me p-practice anything at home other t-than Jūken, the Hyūga family style. I d-don't know any g-good jutsu like you d-do." She was slouching again, shoulders sagging. The girl didn't seem to have any self-esteem.

"You father is a fool not to realize what is actually needed to survive in the ninja world," Sasuke said. "We will change that now. First, physical training and chakra exercises until I can figure out how to test your Elemental Affinity. Then maybe we can borrow some scrolls for techniques. I'm not entirely sure how, though. My family library might have some good ones."

"B-but my father said-" she started to protest.

"I don't care," he interrupted, "you're going to learn how to fight like a ninja not just stand there and brawl, no matter how...refined the technique. Keep working your katas, but horizontal on a tree. If you can do that for thirty minutes straight, we'll move on."

It looked like Hinata was going to continue to argue, so Sasuke simply moved over to some targets and started in on a complicated shurikenjutsu form, the barrage of weapons effectively ending the conversation.

The next day, after a ten mile run that left Hinata embarrassingly tired and overheated (that stupid jacket had to go), he talked to her about the team training she did.

"Most of the t-time, I spar with Kurenai-sensei w-while Kiba-san and Shino-san work on their jutsu," she said, "t-then I work with Kiba-san on chakra exercises w-while Shino-san and Kurenai-sensei train, then Shino-san and I do sprints. We also do t-target practice like at the Academy a-and some t-tracking exercises, along with w-what sensei calls team b-building."

"What is Kurenai's specialty?" Sasuke asked. "I don't really remember her."

"Uhh, a-ano, I think she is r-really good at genjutsu..." Hinata replied, sounding unsure.

"Wait, she's a genjutsu expert, a branch of techniques that require precise chakra control..." he said, peering at her with confusion, "and you, a powerful Hyūga heiress who can selectively expel chakra from individual tenketsu, with a bloodline that allows you to see the very chakra construction of genjutsu, still don't know how to use any genjutsu?" Hinata was obviously perfect for the technique and Sasuke wasn't letting this go.

"Is your sensei retarded?" he sneered at her, disgusted at how awful all jōnin teams seemed to be. Lazy weaklings, all of them.

"N-no! It isn't l-like that! Kurenai-sensei is v-very good to me!" she said, at normal volume for most people but basically screaming for her. "My f-father made sensei p-promise not to teach me anything that w-would, uhh, 'p-pollute my mind with barbaric, non-Hyūga t-techniques'. H-he says that would interfere with my jūken training and using s-such techniques dishonors our clan."

She then hid her face in her hands, rightly embarrassed to admit such weakness. "He s-said he'd p-pull me out of the Konoha forces if sensei d-disobeyed him."

"That is stupid," Sasuke said tersely. "What is wrong with your clan? These are important skills! This isn't a game! Are they trying to get you killed?"

Hinata was staring at him, eyes wide and hands clutching her head, panic on her face. He thought at first she was cringing away from him, scared by his ranting, but then he saw her eyes weren't on him and realized there was someone else at the training ground with them, their presence carefully cloaked. Spinning around, Sharingan whirling wildly, he saw a pale-eyed Hyūga in a strange uniform (not Konoha ninja forces, maybe clan, he guessed) standing silent and expressionless at the edge of the clearing.

Seeing he had their attention, the pale-eyes man bowed briefly and announced in a formal tone, "Hyūga-sama, Unchia-sama, you are summoned to the Hyūga compound to meet with the clan head immediately. Please follow me."

* * *

Sasuke didn't _think _he was going to be killed, not that he could tell from how scary Hiashi Hyūga's killing intent was. The man wasn't even _looking_ at him and he could still feel it. It wasn't clear what this was about, but on reaching the clan compound Hinata had been diverted to another room and he had been hustled directly into the clan head's presence.

The imposing Hyūga patriarch sat across the room from him at a low table, continuing to scratch out something on a scroll while Sasuke was left to wait on him like a little child, kneeling on a cushion and unacknowledged. It was insulting and most likely on purpose. Eventually, Hiashi finished and turned his attention to him.

"Uchiha-san, I have an...interesting report here from the Konoha hospital. As clan head, I routinely receive all medical reports for active duty ninjas in our clan. Being the most powerful clan in the village, our shinobi are sent on the most dangerous missions on a regular basis, so I must determine whether or not they are receiving appropriate care. There is also the risk of them being intentionally put in harms way and hurt outside of missions, something we would not be pleased with."

Here Hiashi paused, looking significantly at Sasuke. "I also have reports from our internal security forces about your...impromptu training sessions with my eldest daughter. We were alerted to this...situation after she returned home three nights ago, bleeding from more than two dozen wounds."

Hiashi continued to gaze at him expressionlessly as Sasuke gulped in fear. He hadn't intended for the Hyūga clan head to learn about his rather violent sparing matches with Hinata, which he would admit had gotten _way_ out of control, especially that last match. All of which Hyūga internal security had apparently witnessed. This was bad.

"She did not seek any medical treatment for this condition beyond her own first-aid," Hiashi continued, "and then spent most of the night and the next day outside the clan complex training with," here Hiashi looked down at some notes, "shunshin for eighteen hours, by herself, at a remote training ground."

"I believe you know what happened later that day," he continued, raising one elegant eyebrow a fraction of an inch. Sasuke coughed softly into his hand to clear his throat, hopefully so as to not squeak like a little girl when he answered.

"Y-yes, Hyūga-sama," he answered, hoping to avoid saying the wrong thing by accident. Hiashi leaned forward a fraction of an inch, the pressure in the room seeming to double.

"There are only two reasons we are not formally reporting those two incidents as assaults on a Hyūga clan member, Uchiha-san. First, Hinata, however foolishly and without proper supervision, accepted the terms and conditions of a scheduled spar at an official Konoha training ground." Hiashi's eyes tore a hole in Sasuke and it took all his concentration to avoid shaking like a leaf.

"The second is that, in the second and most serious encounter, my daughter was given immediate medical assistance by the other involved party. This was not required and is...appreciated." Hiashi Hyūga's killing intent finally vanished, leaving Sasuke to almost topple over from its unexpected removal. "Even so, do not attempt to engage a member of our clan in such a dangerous sparing session again."

"Yes, Hyūga-sama," Sasuke growled, his jaw clenched in anger and embarrassment.

Hiashi Hyūga took a deep breath and let it out again. Not anything so unrefined as a sigh, but very close. "It appears that I need to explain why this incident has resulted in political issues. Please listen closely." Hiashi folded his hands on the desk and started lecturing.

"There are problems in running any clan. These are multiplied in one as powerful as the Hyūga. The responsibility to the village to provide strong shinobi from our branch house is an obvious duty. There is also the duty to our next generation. The Byakugan is a powerful bloodline, one we protect at all costs, but merely having a strong shinobi force drawn from the branch house isn't enough. The leaders of our clan also have to provide a showcase for our defining strength, in the form of complete mastery of the Jūken.

"Proving that our style is superior to all others is a point of pride, and we of the main house display our power for everyone to see instead of hiding it in the shadows as a shinobi should. Our branch house members do not learn all the secrets of Jūken, these are historically kept for only the main house members, but they are instead required to learn other skills to be effective shinobi for Konoha and serve as such.

"Main house members provide both private and semi-public exhibitions of the clan techniques to gain us power and prestige in the noble courts of the elemental countries, thus driving high-risk, high-reward missions to Konoha, on the promise they will be fulfilled by a team containing a Hyūga. This is a premium service the village offers. Main house members are not usually active duty ninja. I was not, nor were my parents or my wife. My brother was, but he...was a special case. Main house members are meant to run the clan and provide political support to the branch house ninja forces, not fight on the front lines."

"This is why Hinata has not been allowed to train in other jutsu and why her team is not allowed on extended missions outside Konaha," Hiashi continued. "Her strange obsession with becoming an active duty ninja has driven us to bend over backward to support and protect her."

That finally made sense to Sasuke – the Hyūga must have thought Hinata was simply a rich girl "playing ninja" and humored her. To have excelled despite that was...impressive.

"We have specifically asked that the Hyūga heiress not be risked in long-range or high-risk missions, like your team's disastrous encounter in Wave," Hiashi looked disgusted, which wasn't much different from Sasuke's opinion of that massively cocked-up assignment, "so all of Team 8's C-class missions are scouting runs to the edges of Konoha. Border patrols, infiltration-checks, cartographic updates, civilian censuses, and such.

"Konoha does not dare risk the life of the Hyūga heiress, and Yūhi-san's primary mission is preventing Hinata's death or, most important, _capture_ by enemy forces. She has been ordered to do this even at the cost of her life and the lives of the rest of her genin team. Yūhi-san will obey this order, even if she has to kill my daughter to avoid her being captured by the enemy. If Hinata knew of this, she would agree with that part of her sensei's orders – of this I am sure. But what Hinata does not have is the firm resolve to let her friends and sensei die for her, to defend her, a valuable treasure of the village, from kidnapping, torture, medical experimentation, or worse."

Hiashi took a second not-sigh, his mouth almost turning down in a frown before becoming expressionless again. "Here is where we have a problem, Uchiha-san. Hinata is not in any way psychologically suited to becoming the strong, decisive clean head the Hyūga need. Her mastery of the Jūken leaves much to be desired and her soft, submissive nature hasn't been cured by becoming a kunoichi, despite the renewed drive she seems to have gained after her humiliating loss in the chūnin exams.

"In all ways, her sister Hanabi is much better suited to being the next clan head. She is strong-minded, unrelenting, entirely dedicated to the Hyūga, and a fast growing expert in Jūken. She has the respect of the clan elders and much of the main house. Hanabi also has no urge to run around Fire Country, waving knives around and risking her life for a pittance in return.

"Normally, these would be considered internal clan matters. I assume you are wondering why I am bringing this up here and now, in front of you, a stranger and outsider?"

Sasuke's throat was so dry he merely nodded, wondering why he was being told what would normally be the dirty laundry kept hidden from non-clan members. That he was from the Uchiha, a former rival clan of the Hyūga's, only increased his worry. It did explain a lot about Hinata, though. "Where is Hiashi going with this?" he wondered.

The older man hummed contemplatively, face still impassive, then seemed to reach a decision. "I might as well explain from the beginning," he said.

"Immediately after the massacre, there was a clan council meeting to decide your fate, young Uchiha. Some argued for placing you with another clan and folding your clan's finances into the host clan's. Others argued that you still had clan rights based on the Konoha founding documents, worked out between the Senju and Uchiha at the creation of Konoha as a new hidden village."

Here Hiashi paused, picking his words carefully. "It may surprise you that the Hyūga, though a rival of the Uchiha, supported you as the final representative of your clan. Dissolving your clan was not our preference. It would have weakened the Hyūga and other strong Konoha clans to have such a precedent. If for this reason, for what others might a clan be disbanded by the council? There are many jealous of our strength. We could not have that. Ultimately, it was decided your clan would be left in place but with you, underage but the last Uchiha and clan heir, under the guardianship of another clan's head. I was that chosen representative."

Sasuke gasped in shock, his world turning upside-down. "I was never told of this. I...what exactly did that entail?" he asked, searching for something to give him a handle on this strange news.

"Simple: I was made responsible for you and your clan's continued safety and support," Hiashi said blandly. "Hyūga clan shinobi guarded you 24 hours a day, in addition to the ANBU patrols and Konoha intelligence reports. Seven major kidnapping and assassination attempts have made it inside your apartment's outer security perimeter during that time, all stopped by Hyūga forces before you were aware of them. We have also handled property management, taxes, and hiring of house staff for your apartment and the infrequently occupied mansion in the Uchiha complex. Tutors were hired for you while you were absent from the Academy, I am sure you remember their lessons. We were also your official sponsors for the Academy after you retruned, though an exception would surely have been made in any case, likely directly from the Hokage. Other than that, we tried to leave you alone to...find your own way. After...that event, you seemed to desire, most of all, solitude."

"I am still confused Hyūga-sama...why are you telling me this?" Sasuke asked, hands clenched on his legs.

"Now that you have a better idea of what has happened in the past with your clan, we come to my main reason for this meeting. What do you intend for the future, Uchiha-san?"

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, seriously confused.

"What do you see as the future of the Uchiha clan?" Hiashi demanded, staring at Sasuke emotionlessly.

The change in direction was all too much for Sasuke and he couldn't wrap his head around this question. Simply sitting mute for almost a minute, his head spinning, he started considering brand new things. "How long will it take to kill my brother? Then what?" he considered silently. The question of what came next wasn't one he had intentionally thought about before. He'd pushed it out of his mind, focused on the moment, on how to become stronger immediately.

Blinking suddenly, he wondered if that was a weakness of his. His brother hadn't thought only one step ahead. There was no way he could have done what he did without premeditation, planning, training for a specific goal. Working toward the destruction of a powerful person should be more complicated than finding them and then attacking by running screaming down a hallway. Like he had tried almost two weeks earlier.

Sitting back on his heels, he considered the problem. Would he be happy if Itachi was killed by someone else? Not really, but better than nothing. Best would obviously be killing him with his own hands, face to face, asking him "why?" as his brother breathed his last. He'd settle for less if he had to, though.

But what came next? Sasuke had kept this idea of "restore the Uchiha clan" as a goal since that horrible night. But just as a vague idea. He didn't actually have any idea how to do that.

Sasuke blinked twice. Well, okay, there was that sex-ed class at the Academy all the guys had to attend. He technically knew the minimum of _how_.

But why was Hiashi Hyūga asking him about his clan, why now? Just when Sasuke started to get a horrible glimmer of an idea of what the clan head was talking about, the unnaturally still man spoke, as if reading his thoughts.

"Yes, a complicated question," Hiashi said, finally speaking again. "Spend some time thinking about it, an answer isn't required at this time." His lips twitched but then his face was stony again and he continued.

"As the guardian of the heir of an almost dead clan, I had one additional responsibility – ensuring the Uchiha didn't die with you. My original plan was for Hanabi, Hinata's younger sister. However, given Hinata's...softer nature, combined with her strange desire for the exciting life of a ninja, I have decided to make Hanabi the official Hyūga clan heiress. This leaves Hinata free to fulfill the roll originally planned for her younger sister. Given her age and...other situations, I have also moved forward the timetable somewhat."

Hiashi Hyūga shifted slightly, the most movement he'd shown since the meeting began. "Please understand, Uchiha-san, that I would have done this regardless in time, but it still makes me glad to see that you are responsible when it comes to caring for Hinata's well-being. That makes my decision easier." Now he actually smiled at Sasuke, sending a cold shiver down the boy's spine.

"Tonight it will be my great pleasure to make the announcement to the clan council of the formal betrothal my daughter, Hinata Hyūga to the clan heir Sasuke Uchiha."

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ I've started a new fic! Go me. If you like Harry Potter time-travel fics __and __stories where __Hermione __is__ more than an info-dump character __(coughcanoncough)__, try this one on for s__ize: _Harry Potter and the Witch Queen – _d__etails on m__y Profile._

_I've always hated the over-used "Super-Harry" that seems to come out of him going back in time, so I've set out to subvert that in the most interesting way possible. It should be updating weekly (at least for now) on Sunday along with your regularly scheduled Secret Treasures chapter (which is also still updating on Wednesdays). Enjoy._


	7. Chapter 7

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Hiashi Hyūga had been wrapping up the details of this new horror in Sasuke's life for the last ten minutes. Sasuke frankly hadn't been paying attention. The Hyūga clan head had been clear about the situation – Sasuke had no choice in this matter. It was already arranged and not in his power to change.

All genin were apparently "adults" for most legal purposes as of their graduation but Clan Law didn't allow a 12 year old to take a leadership position. Until Sasuke was 21, Hiashi Hyūga effectively ran the Uchiha clan as a regent, with oversight by the clan council. Hiashi was therefore in charge of all Uchiha clan issues, including such items as arranged marriages to the clan heir.

"...and finally," Hiashi Hyūga continued, "Hinata will be moving into your clan holdings immediately. She will be living there, starting tonight, along with her maid staff. Other Hyūga family retainers will be joining the Uchiha house staff later, but that should be enough for tonight."

"Wait, Hyūga-sama," Sasuke said in a panic, "I thought you said we weren't actually going to be married until we were 16?"

"That is correct, Uchiha-san. However, it is traditional for the betrothed to live with the clan she is marrying into. Also, certain...tensions in the Hyūga clan would be eased if Hinata were more remote. In addition, it is easier to guard the almost empty Uchiha compound than it is to guard Hinata and yourself separately. You two also need to learn how to live together. This has already been arranged and most of Hinata's personal belongings have been moved to appropriate housing in the Uchiha mansion."

Noticing some of Sasuke's anxiousness, Hiashi attempted to reassure him. "I understand your concern. This must seem sudden to you. My...late wife joined me through an arranged marriage. It was what was best for the clan, of course, but we soon found ourselves deeply in love. She was a very special person and her loss is still felt by the entire clan."

Still expressionless as a stone, Hiashi Hyūga's voice was now surprisingly soft and warm, something Sasuke hadn't expected. "She brought into this world my two precious daughters, who I care for deeply. I would not be doing this if I thought it would hurt Hinata, at least in the long-term. I'm sure she will not be happy in the short term, but I think this will suit her better than being forced to run the Hyūga clan and risking political assassination by her own relatives."

Having Hiashi share like this was starting to make Sasuke uncomfortable. He got the impression that Hiashi didn't often talk about his...feelings or whatever, and Sasuke wasn't much better. He didn't know exactly how to react.

"Uh, thank you for your concern, Hyūga-sama," Sasuke mumbled, trying to get out of this conversation as fast as possible.

Hiashi stared through Sasuke for about a minute, then nodded. "You will begin classes with tutors in clan management starting next week," he said, cold and distant again. Several more agonizing minutes of talking sideways and indirectly about stuff Sasuke didn't care about represented the winding down of this horrible meeting, truly a powerful torture technique executed by a master. Konoha Torture and Interrogation had missed out by not hiring this man. Hiashi eventually relented, and made a final firm statement to him.

"Details of all this will be sent to you later along with a list of current holdings and other Uchiha clan documents. That will be all," he said, dismissing Sasuke suddenly. The young man stumbled out of the Hyūga compound in a daze.

* * *

"I'm not hiding," Sasuke thought to himself as he spewed yet another huge blast of fire over the lake. "I'm just...doing off-site training. Right." He didn't have a plan, so he was just running his chakra strength exercises until exhaustion.

Standing at the end of the pier over the small lake at the edge of the Uchiha clan compound (he didn't remember if the lake had a name or not, didn't care) he stubbornly refused to even start to think about what was awaiting him at his house. Unfortunately for Sasuke, he was running out of both chakra and daylight, so he'd have to return sooner or later.

After the explosive note dropped by Hiashi Hyūga earlier that day, Sasuke had been in a terrible mood. Sasuke assumed that Hinata had been told shortly after he'd left, but he hadn't tried to see her yet. Didn't plan on seeing her anytime soon. The longer he could put off having to deal with her the better, he concluded.

* * *

Hinata's world was shattered. Less than an hour ago, her father had told her she was being moved out of her house, where she had lived all her life, and into the Uchiha compound, where she would be kept until the last Uchiha turned 16 and she married him. The details of her betrothal were burned into her mind, as was the meeting where her father finally told her she wasn't wanted anymore.

Years of disappointing her father and her clan should have prepared her for how this would feel, but she had been totally blindsided. Everything in her mind had shut down after that. She didn't even remember leaving the Hyūga compound.

Now she was sitting in a slightly dusty room as family maids cleaned and unpacked her clothing. She didn't know why this had happened to her – disinherited and shipped off to be married to someone, all in one day. She hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to her sister or her cousin.

Remembering her father's face was hardest of all. It had been made of stone when he told her. Like he didn't even care. Even though it had to have been his decision in the first place, even though she knew he didn't like to show his emotions, she had expected him to at least give her a comforting word, maybe act like he cared what he was doing to her and her dreams.

Hinata suddenly realized she didn't know if she was still going to be allowed to be a kunoichi anymore. Kurenai-sensei might know, she'd have to ask her. Maybe she'd at least be allowed to continue as a kunoichi until she was to be married.

That is, if she was ever even allowed to leave this house again. She'd read books about noblewomen sold off like her, for political reasons or as reparations or even as a hostage after a war, kept in guarded seclusion for the rest of their lives. She might never see her friends again.

It might depend on her future husband, she thought. Uchiha-san was so mean sometimes, she didn't know what he'd do to her. Sometimes, it seemed like he wanted her to train hard and get stronger, sometimes he just exposed how weak she already knew she was. It made her feel sick, a cold ball in her stomach forming as she started to think about her situation. Would she have to beg him to let her continue training and working as a ninja? Would he demand that she...do...things for him in return?

But something inside her rebelled at that thought and her hands clenched into fists – no, that wasn't right. No matter what she wouldn't beg. And if that jerk tried anything, she'd gut him with her bare hands, no matter what happened to her as a result.

Shocked at her own thoughts, she suddenly blinked. That was...odd. She was a little surprised at herself, but after pounding his face multiple times over the last few days, somehow those thoughts didn't seem so...rude? She shook her head, something was very, very wrong with her right now. She just couldn't seem to string two logical thoughts together.

Dinner was a silent affair and Uchiha-san was still nowhere to be seen. She ate (what little she could choke down) alone in an empty, echoing dining room, servants quietly delivering dishes to her lone place at a large, long table.

The next day, she was surprised when Kurenai-sensei showed up at her new bedroom, sometime late morning. Hinata had been sitting by the window since initially trying and giving up on getting to sleep last night. She'd been awake the whole time and her mind was now totally blank. She sat slumped in the chair still, immobile and listless, staring out at the unfamiliar grounds of the mansion. Her sensei walked in unannounced, wearing in her usual white and red battle dress, covered in weapon and equipment pouches, two backpacks slung over her shoulders.

"Hello, Hinata," Kurenai-sensei said softly, so entirely normally. Maybe sensei didn't know what had happened?

"We've got a C-ranked mission assignment, outer border of Fire Country, two week excursion including travel time. Gear up now, we leave in 30 minutes. Meet you outside." Kurenai-sensei then gently dropped on of the backpacks just inside the room, turned, and left, not waiting for a response.

In a daze, Hinata stood up and started dressing in her own mission gear, finding her clothes and armor already laid out for her. The backpack was full of her equipment already, including some of her special healing salve, so she just shrugged and put it on. Still running on autopilot, she followed her sensei over the rooftops to one of Konoha's huge gates where her teammates were waiting for them.

"Hey sensei, Hinata!" Kiba yelled, a little too loud as usual. He was shadowboxing along with Akamaru, which didn't make much sense for a dog but somehow worked for them.

"Sensei, Hyūga-san," Shino mumbled, eyes invisible behind his glasses. Both of the boys were already geared up and had their own backpacks. Kurenai-sensei simply nodded to them and then they were off. Hinata was confused. Everything seemed so normal, everyone was acting so normal. She didn't understand how they could still be this way.

Hours later, they'd passed the outer layer of Konoha city border guard stations and were well into the wild forest. While not as dangerous as the famous Forest of Death training area from the chūnin exam, they still needed to stay on their feet and aware. They'd trained their entire careers for forest survival, though, so it was mostly all automatic.

Just before sundown, Kurenai-sensei called a halt and led them patiently through the camp routine for deep forest situations. Traps were set and camouflaged hammocks set up. After announcing the guard rotation, she sent everyone else to bed, taking the first shift alone. Hinata was so dead tired, she drifted off without any trouble. She usually did on missions.

The next day, Hinata was still very tired, even more so because she had been given the last guard shift and sensei had woken up early to run her through close scouting skills and how to remain hidden while guarding her sleeping teammates. The forest was anything but quiet at night and Kurenai-sensei had asked her to identify every little sound she heard, making her activate her Byakugan when she didn't hear something sensei had or couldn't identify it herself.

By the time they reached the Fire Country border, somewhere near Rivers Country – containing, if Hinata remembered her geography lessons, the ninja village Hidden Waterfall – the entire team was exhausted, having run a high-speed and distance devouring schedule for the last few days. After they set up a bivouac a couple of hours travel from the border, what she said would be the first in a series of medium-term camps for use during their mission, Kurenai-sensei had them rest for an entire day.

The land here was beautiful. Wetter and more lush than where Konoha was located – hidden in the tall, dry, old-growth trees in the center of the Land of Fire – everywhere here was riddled with small rivers, strange bushes with fat leaves, and odd tress with thin hanging branches. Hinata took several cutting for later analysis, finding several plants she didn't know.

The trees were also lower and more spread out, some with strange root systems that looped out of the ground. There were cleared areas where civilians had made large, well irrigated farms surrounded by more dense woodland. The edges of the forest had been turned into tree fields, with lots of fruit trees and what appeared to be nut trees, though they weren't in season right now.

Their mission was apparently to insure their maps of the border and civilian towns and settlements were accurate and all roads and waterways were correctly marked. Several days were spent from early morning until sunset just running through the trees and looking at the lovely sights.

Early into the second week, they were on a routine patrol, analyzing civilian traffic patterns on major roads leading into Fire, when Hinata suddenly gasped. Kurenai-sensei was at her side in an instant, whispering a question into her ear.

"O-over there, sensei!" Hinata said, pointing deeper into the forest. "It's one h-huge chakra signature followed by six more smaller ones, ninjas, 200 meters out, coming in at h-high speed!"

"Sh-, scatter and hide, now!" Kurenai-sensei barked, keeping her voice low. Everyone dashed into the trees and bushes to one side, out of the logical line of travel, camouflaging themselves with leaves and branches, hiding in bushes, or (in Kurenai-sensei's case) simply stepping back and appearing to merge into a tree.

A small woman with what Hinata would swear were dragonfly wings coming out of her back zoomed impossibly fast into the copse of trees where the team was hidden. She grabbed high up on a trunk with one hand, using chakra to anchor and spin around behind it, her wing-like protrusions suddenly disappearing as she stabbed two strange looking knives into the tree, one higher than the other. She then stood on one, her feet balancing impossibly without chakra on top of it, while she used the other to hold on to for balance at waist-height. Her chakra signature then almost vanished, shrinking to less than a civilian usually had. Only Hinata's eyes allowed her to still detect the woman's chakra, which was now roiling in strange colors deep inside her body.

An odd, orange colored chakra was mixing back into her normal blue chakra, something impossible based on Hinata's knowledge of human chakra systems, but at the same time strangely familiar. Hinata wanted to ask Kurenai-sensei about this but couldn't break cover and risk this strange and powerful kunoichi noticing them. She watched tensely, eyes scraping away the solid objects between them. Trees became gray shadows and then were gone, bushes disappearing, even clothing (a side effect of the ability usually ignored by the stoic Hyūga) and flesh was transparent to her eyes.

A little over a minute later, six shinobi wearing Waterfall headbands ran at high speed into the area, skidding to a halt on the lead ninja's silent hand command. One of them walked around, sniffing the air, which Hinata noticed involved some kind of chakra enhancement, sort of like when Kiba did it. Lucky that Kiba had them all on his clan's secret scent-blocking salve, otherwise they'd have been discovered immediately. As it was, it wasn't perfect. They'd find the strange woman or Hinata's team eventually.

She saw the small woman curse, then collect some chakra in her lungs, throat, and mouth. From between her lips came a sparkling, chakra-filled dust which settled on the six Waterfall ninjas. They swayed a little, then the one smelling the air said, "Nope, no trace. I don't think she came this way. Maybe she threw us off with another earth clone. We need to double back and pick up the trail again."

The one who had been leading, apparently in charge of the squad, cursed loudly then motioned them all to turn around and follow him back the way they'd come. "Damn demon bitch already wandered into Fire territory. Could cause an international incident or something. Get moving everyone! We're going back to the Low Country trails and looking closer this time!" They all disappeared into the distance but the woman remained behind, back propped against the tree.

Hinata realized now that they had come from the direction of the Land of Rivers border, so this woman was likely fleeing from Waterfall. A nukenin, fleeing her former village? Hinata knew, both from the Academy and private clan lessons on Hidden Village politics, that all defectors were to be treated the same – capture or evade – no matter which village found them, and were to be killed on sight by their home village's hunter teams.

But if this person wasn't officially a nukenin, did they have to do anything? Could they even do anything against someone as powerful as this woman? No matter how strange the orange chakra had seemed to act, there was still a lot of it. And her natural chakra stores also seemed immense. Again, something was sitting at the edge of Hinata's thoughts, half-remembered, and she wasn't sure what it was. It bothered her.

The Waterfall defector let out a surprisingly loud sigh and pulled her weapons out of the tree, moving to walk down it using chakra again. Then she suddenly pulsed her entire chakra system, a huge blast of painfully bright power rolling over the area, causing Hinata to gasp in pain and turn off her Byakugan immediately.

"Hello? Who's out there, huh?" the woman said, drawling like a bored schoolboy as she strolled down the tree and around to where Hinata had been hiding. Now seeing her with normal vision, Hinata inspected the short woman as she approached. Her hair was cut short in front and just above shoulders sides and back, held in place with hair clips. It hung straight down and was an odd light blue-green color. Her eyes were a bright orange (again reminding Hinata of something), the same orange color as her odd "extra" chakra. She was wearing a strange white short-top, almost a sports bra, over some armored fishnet, showing off her bare, well-toned midsection.

There was a set of two short red sashes stretched over her shoulders and behind her strapping a strange, tubular container onto her back. She also had on a short skirt over some fishnet shorts and wore white ninja slippers and foot wraps. She had her Waterfall headband on her right arm, tied over the long, white, detached full sleeves that ran down to both wrists from her upper arms. A quick check with Hinata's Byakugan showed that was indeed where she was hiding her weapons. There were also some strange seals on her arms and a huge one, pulsing with power, over her left breast – through long habit Hinata avoided staring at them. She also didn't stare at the seals. No time for a detailed analysis of either. The foreign kunoichi was almost to her now.

Hinata froze, unable to move without giving away her position. Just before she was going to bolt anyway, Kurenai-sensei stepped out from a tree behind the strange kunoichi.

"You are in Fire territory, Waterfall ninja. State your business," Kurenai-sensei demanded. "Unless you have a signed Fire Country mission assignment, we can not let you remain here. If you do not have the proper paperwork, current relations with Waterfall mean we will allow you to return to Rivers without contention if you leave now. Please do not start any trouble."

"Woah woah!" said the strange kunoichi, holding her empty hands out in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt anyone! I just, look – something really bad just happened in Waterfall. This guy shows up, some former Waterfall nukenin who was supposed to be dead according to my, err, guardians or something, and another dude with a huge scythe and they started just tearing up the place." The young woman was almost bouncing on her feet at this point, gesturing wildly to indicate the amount of stuff being torn up.

"I think they're after me, and there is no way Waterfall can protect me from guys that powerful, yeah? But you guys?" she was pointing at Kurenai-sensei's headband now and looking hopeful. "You're from Leaf, right? You guys are one of the big five, I'm sure you can protect me!"

"Uh," Kurenai-sensei started, confused by this turn of events. "I don't know who you are and, ahh, I'm not really able to authorize-"

"Ah!" the young woman said, raising one hand in a V-sign, face split with an open grin. "My name is Fū! Glad to meet you!"

Kurenai-sensei was really confused now and seemed about to try and tell Fū to get lost when Hinata suddenly came out of hiding, circling the Waterfall kunoichi at a distance and walking slowly up to her sensei. She had her Byakugan fully activated and was staring directly at Fū. Tensing up slightly but not letting her eyes leave Fū, Kurenai-sensei wanted until Hinata reached her.

Gesturing Hinata over, Kurenai-sensei leaned over to hear what she had to say. The young girl's eyebrows scrunched were together, confused and worried. Covering her mouth with one hand and also not taking her eyes off of Fū, Hinata whispered barely audibly into her ear. "S-sensei, she has some strange orange chakra inside her. I don't know why, but I t-think I've seen something like that before, I just c-can't remember where. B-be careful, she's also really powerful. I-I think, m-maybe, uh, she is more powerful t-than you, sensei. M-maybe more than even my father or, mm, before he...the..." Hianta took a deep breath.

"S-sensei, I-I t-think she's got more chakra t-than the venerable Hokage-sama had."


	8. Chapter 8

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Under the Uchiha clan compound, Sasuke had found a secret labyrinth, multilevel and twisting, not merely a straight forward series of rooms or single storehouse. Once again, he delved down under the earth to find more hidden knowledge and artifacts, wishing there was someone to show him what he needed, what he most hoped to find: a weapon with which to kill his brother.

"It is strange," he thought as he opened the entrance way once again, "that the secret my hated brother had told me about, the dark message about the sacrifice required for the next level of the Sharingan, was only hidden under a temple floor, like a simple religious object."

That secret had resulted in him scorning strangers who might become friends, pushing his classmates away, and maintaining an aloof demeanor so as not to have to make the decision, the one his hated brother had told him he would have make one day: "Will I kill this person to gain the power I need to get my revenge?"

Sasuke hadn't worked out exactly what was hidden in this more secure area, but it had to be even more secret than needing to kill one's best friend to attain true power with the Uchiha bloodline. Maybe Itachi had moved that tablet over to an easier to find location before telling him about it? Sasuke wouldn't put that past him.

Some of the stuff he found was impressive, but didn't seem to warrant such extreme security. The library was immense and he was only starting to get a handle on it. Maybe it contained a secret worth protecting this well, maybe not. The weapons stores, secret training arena, and what looked like an extensive survival bunker were certainly valuable, but seemed more like support structures. Maybe it was the clan itself that the door was meant to protect, with everyone fleeing down here in the case of attack.

Sasuke paused, half-way down an anonymous corridor. "Maybe they haddone that before," he thought to himself. One of the things he had found in the less-interesting secure storage rooms was scrolls containing decade-old Uchiha psych-ops reports on Konoha. Ninjas spying on their own. Big surprise.

Mentioned in the last few months worth (about a month before the massacre, maybe the rest were never archived here) had been the growing anger from the other clans over suspected Uchiha involvement in the Kyūbi attack. No Uchiha ninjas had responded to the urgent call to defend the village from the beast and some more radical and militant elements had been using that fact as a drumbeat to call various political powers against the Uchiha. The counter-arguments were not listed – obviously the ninja involved didn't feel the need to excuse or explain the situation in their own intelligence reports. Annoying.

It did suggest a possible explanation for the endless living quarters and stockpiled food. Maybe his clan had simply hidden from this unstoppable natural disaster, this rampaging demon. As they had prepared who knows how long ago, they might have moved some or all of the Uchiha civilians and ninja into the bunkers. If the Fourth hadn't defeated the rampaging beast, they might have been the only survivors of the attack on Konoha. Something to think about, but it didn't really matter now. He would be the last Uchiha once he killed his brother and he wouldn't be hiding from anything.

Opening up one of the archive rooms, Sasuke sighed again, preparing himself for another long day of looking at paperwork. For the last week, since his future had been sealed so effectively by Hiashi, Sasuke had spent every waking hour searching the archives for clan secrets and possibly a way out of this betrothal. Maybe there was some Uchiha Law that would help him get out of that mess. He hadn't found anything yet. He had been thinking about his family more than anytime in the last five years, though. As painful as that was, he needed to figure out what he would do once he became head of his clan. Even more importantly, he now realized he needed the secret of Itachi's rise to power. Sasuke was convinced it had something to do with his clan and another Uchiha genius, his older cousin Shisui. More intelligence from his clan's endless paper records would help him figure some of it out.

Later that day his search gave promising results. According to the internal security reports he just found on his family, Itachi and Shisui had hung out all the time when his brother had been young. Although Shisui wasn't in ANBU later in his career like Itachi had been, they'd trained all the time before Itachi was in the Academy and much of the time after. His brother had been a genius, Sasuke wasn't arguing that, but his accelerated rate of learning and advancement in the shinobi ranks had been beyond believable, even for a driven shinobi during a time of war. Unlike Sasuke's own path, as he hadn't yet been promoted once.

Clenching his jaw at the comparison, Sasuke left the dusty shelves and continued to search the endless corridors, drawing a map by hand to try and aid his search. His brother had faced death and impossible odds since before he was 12. Sasuke had been on only one C-ranked-turned-A-ranked mission with his team, which he'd gotten severely wounded in without taking down but a single, low-ranking opponent. His brother had made chūnin at age 10. At age 13, still a genin, Sasuke had sulked in his room for hours the day after being told he would be married at 16 to a weak little soft kunoichi who was a practical stranger. The contrast was embarrassing.

Eventually, he stopped sulking and got his head straight again. He simply had another obstacle in his path and giving up, just because he didn't currently compare well against his hated brother's legacy, wasn't an option. If only it was still as simple as getting stronger. There were other problems now, clan problems.

Sasuke didn't know if he would be allowed to continue running missions when he was married or if he'd be forced to retire or something. It didn't matter in the end, he could make his own decision when he turned 21, but he didn't want to wait that long or risk being sidelined for five years. He had made up his mind to become strong enough to kill his brother before then.

The next step had been to work out a training schedule, something that used what he knew from the clan archives about what jōnin Uchiha were expected to know and how fast it historically took to train them up. He was confused about the results, which said it was basically impossible to do in the next three years, a conclusion that didn't seem to match with what Shisui and Itachi had done by Sasuke's age. That was when he decided to figure out how long it must have taken his brother to do that same training. The results only angered him more.

Sitting at his desk back in his suite of rooms at the mansion, he stared at the scroll he'd been working on. It wasn't possible. He'd have needed 72 hour days, 7 days a week to have trained enough to be that powerful, as powerful as Itachi had grown. It simply couldn't be done. Sure, learning jutsu faster was one thing, but his brother hadn't had huge chakra reserves when he was Sasuke's age or, if Sasuke's suspicions were correct, even the next level of Shringan. What Itachi did have was a genius older cousin, Shisui, known as a legendary Uchiha genius even before Itachi's time.

Crumpling the scroll in his hand, Sasuke swore he'd find Shisui's secret in the clan archives. He hated research and seemed to be spending all his time doing it now, instead of learning new jutsu.

But it paid off, eventually. On the forth day searching the library, taking advantage of an inventory system that tracked checkouts and usage, he discovered the scrolls that he sought. Shisui's secret was now his secret, and it appeared no one had read these scrolls since his long-dead cousin and his brother, back when he was a genin. Sasuke might be the only other person in the world who knew of this, now. These new thoughts filled him with excitement.

Shisui had been a genius, true, but specifically in genjutsu and shunshin. The key was in the former, even though his nickname was based on the later. There was an old training technique, detailed in a series of dusty scrolls, that had fallen out of popularity with the Uchiha in the last hundred years; mostly this was because the integration with a large Hidden Village had made such extreme training techniques unnecessary.

But it had been used extensively when the Uchiha were an independent ninja clan, working in the shadows on their own in the hills of Fire Country. A time when singular heroes of great power, capable of killing a Daimyō silently through their entire castle of samurai guards, was more important than having a large number of half-trained chūnins running protection missions for merchant caravans or staffing a police force to protect a Hidden Village. The training technique was actually very simple, enough so that Sasuke was confident he could pull it off.

The student and teacher sat in meditation. Then, when their minds were ready, the teacher produced a complex genjutsu and placed it over them both. The jutsu produced the illusion that they were still in the same room and could now move around freely, but in reality they never actually stirred from their seated meditation position. An advanced version of the jutsu, used by the more powerful and skilled teachers, could speed up time inside the illusion to allow for longer training sessions. This was how Itachi had advanced so fast, training inside this genjutsu with Shisui.

The problem was that, even in the basic version, it required a large amount of chakra from both the teacher and the student, and the student had to give that chakra willingly. This is what really made it only a training jutsu, not a combat one: both parties had to voluntarily provide chakra to keep the training illusion up.

Setting up the genjutsu required a Sharingan user to memorize the layout of the room and have a deep knowledge of both of their techniques, so as to be able to simulate them for the illusion. Inside the illusion, the student was able to act as they thought they should be able to in the real world, and their jutsu worked how the teacher and student thought they should. This was in part what required so much chakra. The time compression required even more, making the illusion run at the speed of thought instead of simulating everything in real-time.

The advantages were obvious. Fights to the death could be run over and over, huge jutsu could be used without risk, dangerous techniques could be trained. There were only two major limitations, things one couldn't do using it for various reasons. One was researching brand-new techniques; that would requiring learning new chakra molding patterns and being able to simulate your own chakra systems reactions to new situations as well as the novel effects on the surrounding world – too much for just the mind to ever handle. The second was actually, physically training the body to become stronger and faster.

It was possible for the student to get around the first and train a new jutsu if the teacher knew the specific techniques inside-out and could simulate all parts of the learning process. But even then, it wasn't as easy as just learning it in real life. Muscle memory and reflexes (how to react in a situation) could also be trained, but that training wouldn't make one's body faster or stronger overall, no matter how long one spent in the illusion, so it was only useful for initially learning katas and planning combination attacks and defenses. Strength and reaction speed improvements would have to be done in the real world. But it was still a huge advantage. One could run an attack combo using huge jutsu and monstrous amounts of chakra over and over again, because the chakra that was being used _in the illusion_ was also part of the genjutsu and could simply be reset by the user, returning the student to a fresh and healthy state over and over again.

Sasuke was now hopeful for the first time since losing so disastrously to his brother. He now had his brother's secret and the eyes to train this way. His happiness lasted for all of an hour before he realized another problem: it required two people and at least one of them needed the Sharingan. It worked better if the student also had it, as their internal model of their own techniques would be better and the simulation would take less chakra. Sasuke's sensei had the eye but he was still out cold. Maybe he couldn't trust Kakashi with this someday, if he ever woke up, but that wasn't an option right now.

Sasuke's least-useless teammate was out with a Sannin training Kami knew where or Kami knew how long, and he didn't have the Sharingan anyway. He didn't even consider trying this training with Sakura – her chakra levels were just above a civilian's so it would be useless to try. She'd pass out or die before they finished formally bowing to each other in the training simulation.

Sulkily slouching through the library's numerous shelves, the ancient and unspeakably valuable scrolls he'd found discarded on a nearby table, Sasuke fell into a dark mood. He had been so close only to be failed by his team once again. Then an idea struck him.

He already knew someone who would train with him and had large chakra reserves, almost as large as his. In fact, he was almost married to her. While she might be weak, there was nothing that said that the person in the student part of the jutsu had to be the one learning. He could run the genjutsu and then use her chakra to train himself to be more powerful. Once he mastered it, he'd use the instructions on the secret scrolls to activate the time compression aspects and spend days in training for every hour the genjutsu lasted. It might be hard on their minds and bodies, but he'd do anything to become strong enough to complete his goal as the Uchiha Avenger.

Sasuke left the dark corridors of the secret Uchiha underground halls to seek out his...fiancée. Failing to find her anywhere in the Uchiha compound after almost an hour, he lowered himself to asking one of the new Hyūga servants about her whereabouts.

The plain dressed, black-haired young woman was reserved and distantly stuck-up looking, as was usual of her clan. It didn't piss him off too much – at least they were quiet. The woman was wearing a strange hairband over her forehead, but then all of the Hyūga servants did for some reason. It wasn't a ninja forehead protector but instead usually had their clan symbol on it. Sasuke wasn't sure why. He'd noticed similar ones inside the Hyūga compound, but the servants in his house had the Uchiha clan symbol on them.

That gave Sasuke pause for thought, but he eventually decided he liked it. It was obvious that gathering people to serve the Uchiha clan was an important step to restoring it.

"You, Hyūga," he said, pointing at the black-haired maid. She turned to him smoothly and bowed. "Yes, Uchiha-sama?" she asked, a little impolitely short with him. Sasuke ignored it – demanding complete respect from mere servants wasn't something an Avenger wasted his time on.

"Where is Hinata Hyūga?" he demanded, still in a hurry.

"Ah, Uchiha-sama, I do not..." she started, before another Hyūga servant walked up and whispered in her ear. "I see. It seems Hyūga-sama is on a long-term mission with her team. Yūhi-sama, her sensei, left with her a week ago. They were to be gone about two weeks, total."

"Hn," he responded, walking away as they both bowed to him. Well, that screwed up his plans a little, but gave him the time he'd need to learn some more about genjutsu techniques. Maybe he'd be able to master this new training technique before she came back. It would be too much to ask for Hinata to get her part right the first time, but at least he would be ready to start teaching her. Then he'd use her assistance and her chakra to improve at immense speeds, as his brother had, quickly giving him the power he needed to get his revenge at last.

* * *

This was all too much for Kurenai. It was a simple matter to disengage from a non-hostile foreign ninja using genjutsu, even a skilled one. A hostile one was harder, but their team trained extensively for that. She might have to stay behind to delay or kill a hostile single foe, but unless they were an elite jōnin it wouldn't be an issue. She was about to signal her team to scatter and later regroup, but now she finds out the feisty young wanna-be nukenin had "strange chakra" inside her?

"Hinata," she whispered to the girl, "do you see any chakra markings or seals on her?" Hinata nodded quickly, tapping her chest and arms to indicate the locations.

"One of them is huge and seems to be leaking the strange chakra, sensei," she whispered back.

"Stronger than the Third Hokage? A strange seal?" Kurenai thought, shocked. "It must be a Kami-damned jinchūriki!" She had no idea which one, but successfully getting her back to the village would be a _huge_ coup for Konoha!

Their village was a little beat up right now and had lost some face after getting betrayed. Acquiring another jinchūriki, bringing their count two like Mist, Stone, and Cloud had possessed at various times, would make Leaf a clear leader in the ninja world's arms race again. Hidden Villages held their super-weapons back, using them as defensive measures to discourage attacks on their home base and only bringing them out for major wars. This enabled them to deploy more jōnin on a daily basis, without fear of direct retaliation. Konoha didn't even have a fully mature host yet, let anyone a village-protecting weapon, as the recent battle had shown. Most of their best jōnin were essentially on guard duty because of that, usually working with genin teams at the same time.

Intelligence reports said the main reason Sand had betrayed Leaf and attacked during the Chūnin Exams was that they saw Konoha (and others) growing too strong to compete against. Compared to Sand's smaller Hidden Village and single (extremely erratic) jinchūriki, everyone else was getting frighteningly powerful. They might also have feared eventually completely losing control of their jinchūriki and what the results would be. Thus the alliance with Sound – a brand-new village, eager to make a name for themselves – and their attempt to sack Konoha. It was unknown if they had been targeting Naruto as well, but it made sense for them to have planned on taking him back to Sand as spoils of war, most likely to kill him and re-host the Nine-tails and possibly the One-tail as well. Their unusual strategy of putting their jinchūriki (suicidally) directly into combat, virtually unsupported, also fit if they were trying to get Gaara killed.

The Third Hokage knew the attack was coming but had underestimated Orochimaru's own abilities and those of his new village's ninja. Sand had been quickly neutralized but the Hokage had been trapped and killed, a heavy blow to Leaf's reputation. It was either masterfully planned or a stroke of luck, but Orochimaru also got away, escaping in the confusion near the end of the battle and before Sand surrendered in the field. But Leaf had been lucky in their own way.

Even after the attack, Leaf was still very large and very strong, essentially because of the Third's long hard work and their extensive civilian population, which Konoha had a "hands off" approach towards (unlike, say, Bloody Mist). They didn't advertise their jinchūriki or use him as a defensive weapon, but they also figured that at least the Big Five knew something about Naruto. Hell, if it wasn't for those three having their jinchūriki on-and-off for the last 60 years, Konoha would likely already be the top dog and de facto ruler of the ninja forces for all Elemental Countries.

Being a newly minted full jōnin, Kurenai had just recently been given access to read Leaf intelligence reports on tailed-beasts and, after the attack by Sand's, the details were fresh in her mind. Leaf had one obviously, but immature and half-trained. Sand technically had one, Gaara, but he was currently being held by Leaf ANBU, along with his brother and sister, as "VIP guests" while the diplomatic corp worked out how to make a much weakened, and currently Kage-less Sand back into a friend of Leaf and future ally. Reviewing the rest, she tried to prepare for possible lies and traps in the girl's story.

Stone originally had the Four and Five-Tails, but there were good reports that they were not currently "working directly with the village." Basically nukenin in all but name. But their last hosts were _male _and in their 40s by now, if still alive. Unlikely Waterfall would have captured and rebound them anytime recently, but possible.

Mist had Three and Six at various times, but Three was definitely the current, bloodthirsty Mizukage, the one behind all the Mist's purges that sought to eliminate all bloodlines from the civilian and ninja population of Water Country. No one seemed to know where Six was or who it was currently sealed in; even the older reports on the Rokubi were fuzzy, something about it being sealed in an effeminate man who later killed a high-ranking Mist shinobi and then disappeared. Maybe it was someone with a bloodline, if so they would definitely be avoiding associating with Mist now. Looking at the fidgeting and bouncing girl it was obvious that this was not a man in drag (too hippy and jiggly). So again, nukenin in all but name and unlikely to be hiding in Waterfall as a kunoichi. Six would be even more powerful than the other two missing jinchūriki and thus less likely to have been captured by the small Hidden Village.

Cloud heavily utilized Two and Eight, both of which were active duty ninja who appeared in public often. Not. Likely. That would be an easy lie to spot. Seven, however, was a complete mystery. Reports varied and mostly read like a history scroll, some suggesting that Sand had captured and then lost the Nanabi shortly after the First Hokage sealed the Kyūbi, but this was marked as a rumor and unconfirmed. Being that it took place so long ago, it was certainly possible that Waterfall had managed to acquire the Nanabi somehow since.

So if Kurenai asked, and Fū said she was anything but the Seven, Six, Five, or Four, this was likely some kind of stupidly complicated and incompetent trap. Seven was most likely and would be most convening, but a cunning and well-informed foe would know that. Maybe her reactions would be more telling than any possible lies she told.

Fū was fidgeting – bouncing a little, in fact – watching the two of them and looking slightly worried. Kurenai decided that their original mission was significantly lower priority than this, assuming the young maybe-jinchūriki was actually sincere.

"Hmm. Uh, Fū-san, am I to understand that you want to leave Waterfall and defect to Leaf?"

Fū's face split into a huge grin again. "Yeah, yeah, you've got it! They really hate me there, and for no good reason. I never want to see their ugly ass-faces again, yeah! I'll do whatever the, uh, Hokage? Right? I'll do whatever he says and be a good girl. Just let me hide there and protect me! As long as you aren't worse than Waterfall, and really how could you be, I'll help you out and stuff, yeah? I've got some awesome special powers!"

"Uh, well," Kurenai started. She was not sure how to politely ask someone if they had a demon locked inside them, especially in front of genin who shouldn't know about such things. "Do you, uh, I mean, I think I know something of your...the special abilities you have _inside you _and I need to confirm that what I think you have is correct." That sounded lame even to her, but it seemed to have gotten the point across.

Visibly wilting, Fū slumped in place. "Shit! Fuck! Yeah, umm. I didn't think you'd know about that. Guess you're just like all the others. Damn. Well, if it matters, I've got the, uh, 'lucky number' seven, yeah?" She was frowning and clenching her fists at her side, visibly angry.

"You definitely won't help me now, huh? Damn. Fuck. So, uh, woo, lucky me again. Well, you and the kids aren't strong enough to kill me anyway so screw you, I'll just leave. Take my chances and run from the freaks. No idea how far I'll get, but hey – that's my usual 'lucky break'." Fū, still ranting, had already started to turn and go before being interrupted by Kurenai.

"No, no, wait. Fū-san, if anything, it makes us want to help you more. We have, uh, previous and ongoing experience helping and protecting people like you. The...Hokage won't mind at all." The young woman spun back around instantly, smiling again.

"Yes! Yes! Fucking A!" she shouted, arms thrown up in the air. "I won't let you down, uhh...?" Fū stumbled verbally.

"Kurenai Yūhi."

"Right, yeah! I won't let you down, Yūhi-san!" Fū cheered.

Kurenai let Fū's strange enthusiasm wash over her, a sense of hope palpable in her voice. "Uh, yes Fū-san," Kurenai said, smiling tightly, "assuming your story checks out, we can most likely offer you a place in our village. You may have to hide or assume another identity until this dies down. As it wasn't public knowledge that...uhh, you and your 'special powers' were a part of Waterfall, and given an attack specifically targeting you, not just you randomly deciding to defect, Leaf will likely be able to offer you a job once you pass a security review. And Waterfall won't make a public issue of this – too embarrassing. Most likely."

Kurenai paused in thought, then continued, "Fū-san, I think I've fought some of these kinds of people before. They were...extremely strong. Were the people you saw wearing robes with a symbol on them?"

"Yeah yeah, black robes with a red cloud on it. Ugly sons of bitches; crazy as a bag full of cats, too. But screw them, I'm getting the hell out of here! Yeah!"

"Akatsuki," Kurenai muttered, remembering the ANBU report sent by messenger-frog from Jiraiya-sama, as he rapidly fled the Konoha area with Naruto in tow.

Fū continued to bounce around making "woo" noises as Kurenai gestured for the rest of her team to come out of hiding. The young jinchūriki seemed to be keeping a close eye on her, but otherwise was as cheerful as she initially appeared. From her lack of trust, and how the Waterfall pursuit team had acted, it seemed like Waterfall civilians and ninja had been as bad or worse than Konoha to their jinchūriki. It might be hard to get her to trust them but, at least for now, Fū was desperate enough to take the risk.

Kurenai's team quickly returned to their latest camp with Fū in tow, collecting their gear in a rush and removing all obvious signs they had ever been there. They then made a beeline for the center of the Land of Fire at full speed, or at least full speed for the young genin. Kurenai wasn't going to let herself get caught off guard in case this was some kind of trap, so she didn't run them into the ground. But it might not have mattered much. The jinchūriki didn't seem to ever tire out and was constantly on alert against an external attack.

It might have worried her more if Hidden Villages ever let their jinchūriki leave unescorted, but most of the time they were practically locked inside, unless there was a major war or something. Using one for a sneak-attack on a jōnin-lead team of genin, or even some kind of long-term infiltration mission, didn't make sense. Even Cloud wasn't so adventurous with their secret weapons. Fū's story seemed to agree with the evidence they had. Intelligence division could check up on the rest of the stuff about Waterfall being attacked later.

On the way back to Konoha, they didn't set up any actual camps, just slept in the trees surrounded by traps and with a strong guard set up. She had Fū sleep a little apart to maintain better internal security, but she apparently only need about four hours every night (even after running all day), so she simply added her as a second to the nightly patrols.

* * *

Hinata was really bothered by the new addition to their group. Fū-san had some strange chakra that kept reminding her of something she'd seen before, now it seemed like she remembered seeing it multiple times. It just didn't add up and she wasn't sure what it was she was forgetting.

She tried to keep an eye on Fū-san using her Byakugan, especially when she wasn't facing the strange teal-haired woman. That was when she noticed her happy-go-lucky attitude was simply a mask. She would be happy and bouncy one minute and then, when she was alone or no one was looking, her face dropped and a scowl took over. She'd glare at the others with what looked like real hate in her eyes, but Hinata never saw her try anything. That was what eventually triggered her memory.

It was Gaara. His rage-filled eyes, hatefully looking at normal people like they were the monsters. Hinata had never seen him fight – that slaughter of the foreign ninjas during the Forest of Death was just butchery, not real combat – but throughout it all he always had streaks of this strange, dark brown chakra filling his body. He had just stood there during that bloodbath and in the arena in the prelims, glaring at everyone, the strange chakra boiling and hazy like sand on a hot day. Not the same as Fū-san's, but still not human.

Now that she'd spent time sparing and training with Sasuke, she understood how strong Gaara must have been to defend himself against the raven-haired genius. He'd need to have monstrous strength. If only she hadn't missed both of his fights during the exams, maybe she would have more personal observations and would have remembered earlier.

As the Finals had exploded into violence, she had been unconscious. Family retainers had quickly surrounded her and guarded her until it was over. After the invasion forces had been finished off, she had gotten more medical attention and then been returned safely to the Hyūga clan compound. Later that week, major cleanup was mostly complete – she'd been too injured and, she suspected her father had declared, too _Hyūga_ to help in. She took a quiet afternoon one day as an opportunity to ask her father what had happened during the Finals and what Gaara had been, mentioning the odd chakra she'd seen. She had also heard some rumors about monstrous beasts fighting outside the walls of Konoha and Naruto-kun somehow being involved, but no one would tell her any details, not even Kurenai-sensei.

Her father, accepting of her timid request for once, talked of demons and secret weapons that hidden villages used for to-the-hilt battle and all out wars. Strange demonic chakra enhanced their very bodies, giving them impossible powers. He spoke to her of reports of violence and slaughter against Sand's own villagers by that insane monster Gaara, who had also participated in Sand's attack against Konoha. He then gave her a word for them: jinchūriki.

That must be why Kurenai-sensei had reacted so oddly to being told about the strange chakra and the even stranger answer to her questions. Hinata realized that orange power must have been the demon's chakra, forming and powering the wings the woman had used to fly. This revelation confused her more, but Kurenai-sensei must know what was going on. Sensei now seemed fine with protecting the odd young woman. And Fū-san seemed, well, nice enough, at least most of the time. Gaara had obviously been hateful insanity incarnate, trapped in a human shell, but she just seemed...sad, and maybe a little resentful.

So Hinata wasn't afraid of Fū-san, not like she had been of Gaara. The woman could have killed those six Waterfall shinobi if she'd wanted to, but instead had used some kind of mind control genjutsu to fool them into leaving. Maybe she hated people who thought she was a monster, who assumed she was someone like Gaara, but she didn't seem like a bloodthirsty killer either. Maybe she was genuine in her desire to join their village and indeed only wanted protection in exchange for joining them.

Kurenai-sensei still seemed cautious around her but didn't warn them (through codewords or hand-signs) of any direct threats. Obviously, she was aware that jinchūriki could be dangerous and was taking some precautions. The rest of her teammates didn't seem to realize what Fū-san was, but something was up with one of them.

Shino-san had been acting strange – well stranger than usual, if Hinata was being honest with herself. She liked the quiet boy and his bugs didn't squick her out like they did most girls at the Academy. But now he spent almost all of his time staring at Fū-san, a confused look on what was visible of his face. A couple of days before they hit the outer border guards of Konoha, Shino-san finally confronted her about it.

He had sat down next to Fū-san while they were eating that night, stiff as usual and not even vaguely casual about it. He coughed into his hand once, nervously, then simply bulled right in.

"Ah, excuse me Fū-san." he mumbled.

"Mmmph?" she said, through a mouthful of rice, eyebrows raised.

"Ah, yes. Ah. I was wondering if you could possibly tell me..." Shino ran out of steam, fiddling with his glasses.

Fū-san gulped down her food, again reminding Hinata of someone else she couldn't remember. Thinking about Konoha hurt her inside, the memories of her family most of all. She would figure out the second part later, when they were out of the field and safe. Then there would be time to deal with this new pain in her heart.

"Hmm, what is it, uh, Shino-kun right?" Fū-san asked.

The nervous boy nodded once, slowly, then tried again. "Fū-san, I was wondering why you were stealing my bugs."

Kiba-san sprayed half-chewed rice a surprising distance, sputtering in surprise. "What?!" he yelled. "Shino, what the hell are you talking about?"

Looking a little guilty, Fū-san poked the ground with her toe, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Over the last couple of days, I've sent 14 scout bugs into Fū-san's personal space," Shino said adjusting his glasses again. "During that time, all have disappeared from my command network within three feet of her, but do not appear to have been killed or physically disabled as other scouts, outside that range, report that they were still healthy and active after I lost contact. They seem to have...defected. This is normally... not possible. Not even other Aburame could accomplish that. Who are you to be able to do this?"

Everyone else was shocked into silence, staring at the two of them and waiting for some kind of answer. Fū-san didn't immediately say anything, fidgeting as she swung her feet back and forth on the huge tree branch they were sitting on.

"Err, well, how do I say this..." she started slowly, face scrunched up in thought.

"Bugs like me!" she finally concluded, smiling weakly. She then stuck out a finger and a moth almost immediately came from the darkness to land on it.

Kiba-san face-palmed hard enough to echo through the woods. Kurenai-sensei slumped a little, and Hinata was confused. Shino-san simply stared at Fū-san for a few seconds, then sighed and stood up, moving as far away from her as possible.


	9. Chapter 9

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

The Konoha Council, advisers to the Hokage and current military rulers of Konoha, weren't having a good month. First, someone tried to kidnap their jinchūriki. Then, it turned out the attackers were part of a major organization that had, as their goal, kidnapping _every _jinchūriki, something that would grant them incredible power no matter what they were planning.

Koharu Utatane had thrown up her hands and left her former teammate and co-member of the Council, Homura Mitokado, to deal with that issue and the others soon to follow. Koharu was focusing on keeping things together with the Civilian and Clan Council so there would even be a village for the new Hokage, hopefully Tsunade-hime, to rule in. He was certainly tired of the paperwork and didn't mind Koharu volunteering to take over most of it.

Homura rubbed his beard in thought, then pushed his glasses back up his nose. Sitting behind a desk in the Hokage's office (not the big one, though) he sighed deeply. Trying to keep everything running just a little bit longer, he and his ex-teammate had been working 15 hour days. It was beginning to wear on them. Returning to his still impressive stack of paperwork and reports, he dug in again.

Next up, that Hiashi ass had married off the Last Loyal Uchiha to his daughter (something the clan council agreed to immediately). Whether that was more likely to drive young Sasuke-kun into becoming a nukenin or help tie him to the village, Homura didn't know. It had certainly resulted in a strange complaint from the bride-to-be's jōnin sensei, Kurenai Yūhi.

According to this official complaint he was reading, she felt this was "extremely premature" and would "negatively affect her team in general and Hinata's growth as a kunoichi specifically." Given the poor girl's horrific injuries from the Chūnin Exam, something she had just recovered from, and her weak mental state according to psych reports, Homura wasn't sure he disagreed. But clan matters in Konoha were outside his direct control – the betrothal agreement was completely legitimate, and the fact that the bride and groom had the same legal guardian was simply an unusual detail. Putting aside the complaint to be filed without action, he considered yet another small pile of paper, this time all on one incident, centered around one mouthy young woman in particular.

Foreign nukenin plots against their secret weapon, Orochimaru and dead a Hokage, Uchiha clan antics; things were piling up. And now, _now_, they had a defector from another hidden village, Waterfall. They didn't have truly good relations with Waterfall, so rejection of such persons wasn't automatic. Also, Waterfall didn't have them listed as a nukenin, but that was just a technicality really. However, he thought, if someone would betray one master, what was to say they wouldn't betray the next. Dealing with traitors was...difficult. That the defector was a jinchūriki destroyed all normal cost-benefit analysis.

She claimed to have been fleeing from a grave threat while not on a mission, so it wasn't an idle or necessarily cowardly defection. It wasn't an attack on her village, but something targeting her specifically. Maybe if that story could be confirmed she could be trusted more. At this point, he was sure it would in fact turn out to be Akatsuki again. Maybe they could work out a way for the Seven-tails to defend the Nine and prevent their village from losing such an important asset. He'd have to talk to Danzō about that later. Carefully. That old dog was dangerous.

Well, at least she appeared sane. That was always a worry with such people. Flipping through some pages, he saw she was a trained Waterfall kunoichi, but had picked up lots of strange skills and couldn't be easily classified. Raw power wise, she was likely Special Jōnin level in normal ninja abilities, and that didn't include whatever huge Seven-tails released mode things she had up her sleeve. Strong Wind element and good field-craft were both suggested by the first-hand reports they had so far.

Officially, she was a genin of Waterfall, but that was just what their "public" records listed (that Leaf regularly stole from their offices). "Fū" was a codename, and the only one they had on the books. She didn't seem to remember ever having another name and minor mental probing seemed to confirm that and the rest of her story.

And here was her report on the attackers. Black robes, red clouds. Yes, it was them. The people who'd been chasing after Naruto must have reported back on their failure to the group called Akatsuki, who had immediately sent agents after Fū. The timing fit.

Flipping another page, he continued to read. After disengaging from their attack in the middle of Hidden Waterfall, she'd joined the Leaf team and started towards the center of Fire Country and havoc had followed in their wake. Towns where Fū might have hidden were burned, entire merchant trains they could have secretly joined sacked, and random ninja in the area attacked for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Konoha border guards had actually been attacked at one point, mere minutes after Kurenai's team had zoomed past at full speed on their return to Konoha. Hinata Hyūga had apparently warned her team of the nukenin they'd picked up and Kurenai had (correctly) used the border guard station to scrape their pursuers off the team's trail.

After their rushed flight (_literally_ according to reports,because of Fū's powers) had reached Konoha and the team warned the guards about their pursuit (while flying past at high-speed), the experienced ninja at that post had engaged the Akatsuki members. Homura turned a few pages to find their descriptions of the attackers. Their reports agreed with Fū's – two extremely powerful, S-class nukenin, one impossibly seeming to be a 90 year old criminal from Waterfall itself, the other a violent cultist from the dismantled ninja village, (formally Hidden) Hot Spring. If the survivor's reports hadn't agreed with Fū's description, Homura wouldn't have believed it.

Now he had to tell the Provisional Ruling Council, made up of the Civilian Council, the Clan Council, and the Konoha Council, whether or not to protect a potentially dangerous jinchūriki from an active and _extremely _powerful criminal organization that was hunting them. At least the young woman appeared to be friendly enough, especially after they explained how she wasn't Leaf's only jinchūriki – at least in vague terms, as she certainly wasn't cleared for village secrets yet. Homura wondered how Naruto would react to another jinchūriki possibly joining the village. He'd worked miracles with Gaara – the insane boy was still calmly waiting under house arrest in ANBU care in the VIP suites – and the Sand shinobi wasn't a cheery, attractive young woman. It should be interesting to see.

Koharu had disagreed with him so far, but these detailed reports should convince her at last. The only thing they agreed on so far was that there was no way Danzō would be allowed to even see Fū. Giving him such a weapon had been a bad idea when Naruto was a child, giving him a skilled kunoichi and adult jinchūriki would be a disaster.

* * *

Sasuke was sitting on the large front steps of the Uchiha mansion reading a jutsu scroll when Hinata trudged up. Back from her two week mission a little early, it seemed.

"Hyūga," he grunted, then looked more carefully at her disheveled and dirty state. "You look...rough. Are you hurt?"

"N-no, Uchiha-san," she said lethargically, "just tired. The mission went...s-strange near the end." She wasn't looking directly at him and seemed very nervous, though her stutter was better than usual.

"Hn," he said shortly, then considered. "I know how that is. Your team?"

"T-they are safe and unharmed. Just t-tired."

"Good," he mumbled, his eyebrows furrowing. Hinata simply stood there, unsure, backpack hanging from her hands, body swaying slightly in place.

Rolling the scroll back up, he sat there awkwardly, glaring at the steps. This was the first time he'd seen her since Hiashi had told them about the betrothal and Sasuke didn't know exactly what to say. Hinata looked really worn out though, and seemed to think she needed to be dismissed or something.

Well, this was his house and she was technically a guest. It wouldn't do to dishonor his family's memory by not taking the proper steps. Trying to dig back, he recalled some similar situations with important guest and how his father had comported himself.

"Hyūga, you should clean up before dinner. It isn't for a few hours, so take a nap if you can. I will have the servants wake you in time to be ready to eat," he said emotionlessly, staring into the distance, his mind years away as he remembered his cold and proper father.

Sasuke stood and started to turn back to the house. He then stopped and walked down the steps to where Hinata was standing, still vacantly staring at him. As he approached, she seemed to wake up and started to fidget with her backpack. He held out his hand and gestured at the heavy, dirty pack. She didn't understand for several second, then blushed in embarrassment and handed it over to him.

"Go, I'll get the servants to take care of this," he said, still as cold as ice and not looking at her. Hinata swayed again, staring at him. "Go, Hyūga," he repeated when she didn't move. She blushed again and tried to scamper away up the steps to the big house but instead ended up sort of stumbling and hobbling inside.

* * *

Hinata had limped aimlessly through the house for several minutes before a servant found her and directed her to the main bath. She found herself escorted into a huge room with rich wooden fittings, a door leading to a large and steamy washroom with an ornate above-ground bath. Having tried and failed to politely shoo off the woman who'd helped half-drag her into the changing area – a branch house Hyūga with the Uchiha symbol on her sleeve and headband – Hinata now struggled with her clothes, the sadly ripped sleeves of her coat catching on her elbow somehow, and then she'd managed to half-remove the chain fishnet armor and everything was tangled up. The young woman refused to leave, much to Hinata's dismay, and instead started assisting her in correctly removing the offending articles of clothing.

"T-thank you, uh, a-ano..." Hinata started, unsure who any of these new servants were. She'd never been close to the help at the Hyūga compound, but she was sure she didn't know this woman from the main house.

"Suzume Hyūga, Mistress," the woman with dark brown hair answered quietly, gently trying to wrestle Hinata's pants off without knocking the tiny girl over now that her shoes had been removed successfully.

Showing her amazing ninja senses were still operational, Hinata realized what the woman was doing at last. "N-no! S-stop taking my p-pants!" she squeaked in protest, feebly trying to push Suzume-san's hands away.

The young woman froze. "Mistress, I was assisting you in getting ready for your bath. Do you not wish to take a bath now?" she asked, eyes averted, almost whispering.

"A-ano, I...t-that is..." Hinata fumbled with her pants, now trying to keep them from slipping down.

Suzume-san simply knelt where she was, hands folded tightly on her knees, eyes downcast, totally frozen in place. As if she was waiting in fear for something. Hinata was very confused and very tired, not understanding the reaction. Then a glance at the woman's forehead, covered by the cloth headband, and she understood. Suzume-san was awaiting punishment from her, waiting for Hinata to use the cursed seal on her forehead to inflict incredible pain. A single gesture from a main house member was all that it required. Hinata suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

"Ah, n-no I'm n-not mad, Hyūga-san! I-I j-just like t-to b-bathe myself. I, I, I would never hurt you that way!" she protested. Suzume-san relaxed almost imperceptibly, taking a slow deep breath.

"As you say, Mistress," she said, voice steady and controlled. "However, it might be dangerous for you to do so yourself, at this time. You are...in a difficult state right now. Please, allow me to help." She paused, then added, eyes still on the ground, "I would be in a great deal of trouble if you were to be hurt because of my negligence."

"Oh, uhh, o-ok, I g-guess..." Hinata stammered, face flushing quickly. She let go of her pants with slightly shaking hands, leaving Suzume-san to resume bravely attempting to remove the mud-caked garment.

Once the woman had stripped off her armor and undershirt, Hinata had to struggle to prevent resisting gentle fingers removing her bra and underpants. She was now naked and shivering all over – as usual, not from the cold. Suzume-san seemed briefly confused, but then rolled up her sleeves and firmly led Hinata over to the hot bath. First she set Hinata on a low stool and quickly washed the worst of the mud and grit off her body, then she gave her hair a brief once-over before gently assisting her into the steaming hot water in the large tub. Hinata tried to relax into the water but the days events still filled her mind with terror and panic.

Letting the woman wash her was unsettling, something that she hadn't allowed since her mother had died, but she couldn't argue with the logic. Hinata was so tired and everything hurt but she wasn't actually injured. If she hadn't been so tired, she might not have admitted what she did.

* * *

Seeing Hinata-sama was still shivering in the extremely hot water, Suzume grew worried, pausing in collecting the supplies to begin washing the young girl's hair. "Mistress, are you injured?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"N-no, I'm f-fine, thank you." Hinata-sama responded, face flushed bright red.

Suzume didn't believe that for a second and started looking at Hinata-sama more closely, searching for tell-tale red discoloration in the water from a laceration or bruising on her body indicative of internal bleeding. Her hands gently searched Hinata-sama's scalp for hidden wounds.

"I am a trained field medic, Mistress. Please, tell me what is wrong. You appear to be going into shock," Suzume stated, urgently.

"I, n-no, I'm f-fine, r-really. I just, I-I mean, I d-don't..." Hinata-sama stammered out. Suzume was ready to call for help at any moment, something was wrong with the young girl. Hinata-sama looked at her with enormous eyes, then ducked her head and started muttering an explanation.

"I-I don't f-feel safe when I'm n-naked a-and alone, w-without my clothes a-and armor and w-weapons and f-friends," she said into the bathwater, face almost touching it and hair hiding her crying, "a-and I-I k-keep covered u-up b-b-because I-I-I'm n-not v-very p-p-pretty and, and I-I am so w-weak and I-I d-don't want p-people to h-hate m-me and I d-don't want y-you to h-hate m-m-me," she babbled, whimpering, admitting her horrible fears out-loud. Tears had started to drip into the bathwater and her entire body was quivering violently now.

Realizing she'd actually gasped out loud, Suzume quickly regained her composure, cursing Hiashi Hyūga silently to eternal damnation for how badly damaged he'd let his own daughter become.

"I understand, Mistress," she said calmly, her voice still shaking a bit despite her resolve. "Please excuse the impropriety of what I must do now." Suzume leaded over the tub awkwardly, her arms quickly wrapping around the weeping girl, drawing her to the edge of the tub and into an embrace. Hinata-sama tensed up for a horrible second that reminded Suzume yet again how the main house girl could kill her with a single half-seal, then Hinata-sama moved like lightning, hugging Suzume with her incredibly strong arms. Suzume avoided wincing with sheer willpower as her ribs seemed to creak. Gently holding Hinata-sama's head to her chest, she whispered softly into the sobbing girl's ear.

"Mistress, you know I am sworn to serve the main house?" Hinata-sama jerkily nodded her head into Suzume's chest. "That includes assisting and advising the main house where required, you know this of course?" Again, her head nodded, her face still hidden in the wet fabric. "And you know...what the penalty is for lying to one of the main house, yes?" Pausing for a long time, Hinata-sama eventually nodded shakily, her sobbing now slowed to a few sniffles.

"Then understand, Mistress, that it is improper for me to lie to you and I would be punished severely if I did. So I am telling the truth when I say you are stunningly beautiful, with the fine skin and body of a young warrior goddess and the kind and quiet demeanor of a princess. Anyone with eyes and common sense would agree, Mistress."

Hinata-sama's head snapped up and she stared at Suzume in confusion. The young woman looked back at her calmly, still holding the girl loosely in her arms, still ignoring her now soaked dress.

"I...wha?" she started, shocked and apparently unable to form logical sentences.

"If anyone were to hate you because of how you look, Mistress, and I would certainly never agree with those who did, it would be because they were jealous of you. Most girls your age are not as womanly and well proportioned, and this might cause hurt feelings and jealously of your natural beauty. Any who succumbed to such feelings would be ill mannered indeed to show it in your presence and unworthy of your friendship."

"I...I...t-thank you, Hyūga-san," Hinata-sama said, new tears leaking from her eyes. Moving her hands to hold Hinata-sama's shoulders firmly, Suzume took a deep breath and continued. "As for your safety, Mistress, this is one of the most secure sites in the entire hidden village. Even the Hokage's security, with his ANBU forces, is not much better than ours. With fewer non-security people present and every guard using the Byakugan, you are safer here in the Uchiha mansion than you would be even in the Hyūga compound. Every one of those guards would die to protect you, as would I."

"Hyūga-san, I-I-" Hinata-sama started.

"If you would, please call me Suzume, Mistress," Suzume interrupted.

Hinata-sama cracked a small smile and relaxed her death-grip on Suzume, then continued, "Thank y-you, Suzume-san. I, I never r-really understood w-why they acted like t-that at the Academy. B-but I don't want y-you, o-or anyone else, to have t-to d-die for me. I w-want to be s-stronger, s-strong enough not to b-be afraid anymore, not t-to be a b-burden to everyone." She looked sad and stared down into the bathwater, no longer meeting Suzume's eyes. Suzume frowned briefly.

"Mistress, I do not need to remind you that, of the hundreds of genin in the village and dozens in your graduating year, you were chosen out of your class as one of three elite training groups for your year. In almost every other year, even fewer were chosen, with most teams given the test failing to garner a jōnin teacher at all. This already puts you in about the top 5% of all genin in the village, skill-wise. You have also successfully survived the most recent Chūnin Exam, one that claimed more lives than any exam since Mist was originally excluded from participation. Through all, you were a brave ninja of Konoha and served with honor.

"As for your personal strength: if recent rumors are true, you can fight Uchiha-sama to a standstill in single combat, at least for awhile. He was declared 'rookie of the year' in his graduating class, an honor you only missed by a few points in the practical exams. In fact, you finished first among all kunoichi in practicals and only third overall in the written exams, placing you firmly as top kunoichi of your class."

Shocked, Hinata-sama asked, "H-how do you k-know so much about m-me, S-Suzume-san?"

"I was assigned to you as your personal servant, to be the handmaiden of the future wife of the head of the Uchiha clan. I will execute this duty to the best of my ability, which includes knowing everything possible about you, Mistress." Suzume bowed to the still stunned girl – not an easy task as she was still being wetly hugged by the her.

Seeing how damp Suzume had become, Hinata-sama instantly released her and jumped back, sloshing the water in the tub and getting even more water on her clothes. "Oh n-no, I'm so s-sorry! I've g-got your dress all w-wet!" she said.

"Please do not worry about it, Mistress," Suzume said, pulling her plain work dress over her head. Hinata-sama immediately blushed and turned away from the woman who was now in her underwear. What little she had seen suggested she was not merely a beautiful woman, but was also a trained kunoichi. As Suzume collected some soap and shampoo from a nearby shelf then returned to the side of the tub, Hinata-sama took the opportunity to take a closer look at the young woman. Her wrists were thick and well muscled, like her jōnin sensei's, and her body was small but well-toned and muscular, as were her short legs.

Suzume was short, just a little over five feet, and in her early to mid 20s. Her hair was straight, dark brown, and cut just above her shoulders with short bangs framing her round face and pale gray Hyūga eyes. Up close, Hinata-sama saw some faint scars on the woman's hands, arms, and body, and what looked like a small one on her face across one cheek, mostly hidden by subtle makeup. Suzume noticed Hinata-sama's eyes on her and sat still, waiting while she was viewed. Hinata once again flushed in embarrassment when she realized the woman had caught her looking.

"Yes, Mistress. I am a retired Leaf kunoichi. I had attained the level of 'Special Jōnin' before retirement and returning to Hyūga clan service. Please allow me to serve you however I can," she said, bowing again before reaching for a bath cloth. Hinata-sama was so stunned she didn't react to being gently washed by someone else.

"Thank you," Hinata-sama whispered, almost silently, eyes staring blankly at the wall.

* * *

Sasuke wasn't sure Hinata would make it to dinner. She'd seemed dead on her feet and might just sleep until the next day. It would be annoying and delay his training plans, but there was nothing for it. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, he assumed she was either very hungry or too inherently polite to avoid dragging herself down to the meal.

What he saw coming down the stairs left him speechless. He'd only seen her in that stupid jacket, usually covered in dust and sweat or hiding behind something. What she was wearing now looked like a shimmering, multicolored set of sheer veils, seeming to barely cover her chest and leaving her taunt belly bare. The multiple layers of fabric draped over her large breasts appeared in constant danger of sliding away to leave them fully exposed and did nothing to disguise their lovely shape. The tight blue silk wrap-around skirt she wore was more modest, being floor length and less nearly fatally see-through, but ended up being only slightly less subtle in emphasizing her hips. Something in his mind seemed to bend then suddenly break.

Realizing his mouth was hanging open, Sasuke snapped it closed with an audible click, turning back to the place setting in front of him. Trying to concentrate on his forks (two) and spoons (three) and on memorizing their exact spatial relationship to each other as a tactical exercise (in case someone swapped them when he wasn't looking with a replacement jutsu) he couldn't help but think that any of his many, many fangirls would hate Hinata forever if they knew about the betrothal, but would try to _kill_ her if they knew about that outfit.

"A-ano...g-good evening, Uchiha-san," she stammered softly, looking like she wanted to hide. The Hyūga servant behind her subtly steered Hinata to a chair across from Sasuke. They'd been set up at seats directly across from each other in the center of the long table, instead of at each head of the table or with her to the left of him at one end. Sasuke hadn't figured out why until he saw Hinata's outfit. His eyes suddenly narrowed. Once again he had underestimated his enemy. They were very strong, it seemed, and he'd have to be on the lookout for more such subtle work from the Hyūga.

He hadn't even realized that he had leaped to his feet when she'd entered, but he still waited as was proper until the Hyūga servant pulled out her chair and Hinata sat down before returning to his chair. "Hyūga, you look...well," he said, trying to avoid looking directly at her mentally challenging clothing. If he didn't know better, he'd swear it was part of a genjutsu meant to distract him.

"I, uhh, I am p-planning on t-turning in early, but I f-feel much b-better now, t-thank you Uchiha-san," she said, almost whispering as the food arrived. The Hyūga servant had quietly slipped out of the room, leaving them alone after the man serving their food retreated to the kitchen. Her shimmering blouse-thing was really, really distracting. He decided to gather some intelligence on this situation directly.

"Hinata, what is that outfit?" he asked bluntly. Her eyes grow huge and she blushed bright red. Maybe that was the wrong question.

"Ahhh, uhhh, d-do you h-hate it, U-Uchiha-san?" she said, staring at her lap.

"Shit," he thought, "maybe that was the wrong thing to say."

"No, uh, not at all. Uh, I think it is nice," he said in a rush, attempting damage repair on whatever that reaction had been. "I just wondered...it isn't like what you normally wore at the Academy," he ended, lamely

"Oh!" she said, relaxing a little at last. "It is s-something new Suzume-san had for me. She's m-my...handmaiden, I guess? She t-took some other Hyūga s-servants out to get me some n-new clothes when...when I moved in. S-she said I needed s-something other than f-formal wear designed for c-clan events and t-training gear."

"Ah. That...makes sense," he said, desperately looking for another topic of conversation. They sat in silence and ate something, Sasuke wasn't sure afterward what – Hinata's shirt was very distracting. She looked a little nervous still, but at least she wasn't crying or bleeding. Yet. They were almost finished with whatever desert was (he still wasn't paying attention) and he hadn't brought up the new, secret training that he reluctantly needed her help with.

"Hyūga-san," he started, surprising Hinata and making her jump and...squeak. He ignored that firmly, steepled his fingers, and leaned on the table, continuing, "The Uchiha have many powerful secret techniques. My search has found one of these, one which is used for accelerating training among young Uchiha students. It requires a second person to work correctly, however. I will have your assistance in perfecting and utilizing this technique to improve my strength as soon as your other duties allow."

"Oh, of c-course, Uchiha-san!" she said immediately. "My t-team doesn't have p-practice again until n-next week. I will be f-free until then," she said earnestly, leaning forward.

"Good. Good," he said, once against lost in the interpersonal and conversational maze. He found himself staring at her strange blouse again, wondering what kept it together and how breast size was measured and how large exactly those were and what hers looked like under all that silk.

Hinata suddenly gasped, something he noticed visually more than auditorily as her chest heaved. His gaze flicked up to her eyes in time to see them get as large as saucers and her mouth fall open. He froze for a critical second, then took the only action available to him.

"Seeyoutomorrowthen," he muttered in a rush, standing and leaving the room as fast as he could, shamefully retreating from the field of battle.


	10. Chapter 10

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Having a battle-scarred Special Jōnin sleep in her room was the best thing that had ever happened to Hinata.

Late that night, after the confusing dinner with Sasuke-san, Suzume-san had come upon her getting ready for bed. Naked, shaking, and starting to make her usual nest in the new closet, Hinata had frozen like an animal caught in the lantern-light. But Suzume-san hadn't even broken her stride, helping to move her bedding to the more enclosed space without a word. She then quietly left only to immediately return with replacement sheets and blankets that she arranged on the large four-poster bed. Suzume-san then went off again, to her room she guessed, and returned with some ninja equipment. She gestured Hinata over to watch as she set traps in both the suite's main room and bedroom, all windows and doors covered, arming and disarming the wire traps several times to show her how.

When she left another time, Hinata thought it was for good. Hinata then discovered to her dismay that she didn't have any replacement jackets in her closet, nor anywhere else in her room. She eventually had to settle for a matching set of blue pants and sleeping shirt the other servants had left out. They were covered in a shuriken print pattern, which she thought was strange but nice.

Still confused by the entire silent encounter with Suzume-san, she checked the new traps one last time, expecting to see the strange woman again in the morning and maybe ask some questions then. Instead, Suzume-san returned a few minutes later, disabling and re-enabling the traps as she entered. She was now dressed in a light-brown colored pair of loose fitting pants and a camisole and was carrying a small ninja armory.

Suzume-san was carrying several weapons, including standing issue kunai, a thick bladed tantō with a warn handle, and a brand-new looking, longer bladed ninjatō, all in shiny black sharkskin sheaths. Suzume-san left them on a side table next to Hinata and waited submissively until the girl hesitantly took the tantō. Suzume-san then bowed, smiling slightly, and stowed the rest of the equipment in a side table. She then proceeded to prepare what would normally have been Hinata's bed, obviously intending to sleep in it herself. She paused when Hinata continued to stare at her.

"Is anything wrong, mistress?" she asked.

"Ah...ano...w-why are you sleeping here, Suzume-san?"

"Mistress, in addition to being your house servant, I am also your personal bodyguard. If you are afraid of attack, I will do everything in my power to alleviate those concerns." Suzume-san bowed briefly, then waited by the bed, watching as Hinata retreated to her closet nest.

"Please call for me if you need to leave during the night, Mistress," Suzume-san said, extinguishing the last of the lights.

Still confused but strangely comforted, Hinata lay down to sleep, checking the area several times with her Byakugan. Each time she saw the huge, adult-sized chakra signature of Suzume-san quietly resting in the bed, the wonderfully sharp weapons they both had, and the quite deadly traps surrounding her. She struggled briefly with consciousness but quickly drifted off to sleep, one hand loosely wrapped around the slick black sheath of the large borrowed knife. She didn't realize until morning that she'd stopped shaking the moment Suzume-san had showed up and even her hands were steady all night. It had been the best night's sleep she'd had since her mother had died.

The next morning, Suzume-san waited on her as she got ready. Hinata was feeling much better and was a little worried Suzume-san would insist on helping her dress or, most embarrassing, take a bath. Instead, her duties seemed to consist mostly of standing around while Hinata bathed and got dressed by herself. Hinata never caught the woman looking directly at her but it seemed like she was always nearby, waiting in case she needed help with something.

Hinata was about to start putting on her training gear when she realized her jacket was still missing from last night and she didn't have an unripped replacement. "Suzume-san," she started hesitantly, "d-do you know where my j-jackets are? I need to get d-dressed for practice with Uchiha-san."

"They are still boxed up somewhere from the move, mistress," Suzume said smoothly. "It is said you will be using the underground Uchiha clan training ground today, so indoor training gear is appropriate. I have set out a replacement gi. Please let me know if it does not meet your needs, Mistress." The woman bowed to her and gestured to a pile of dark silk clothes.

"A-ano...t-that reminds me, Suzume-san. Why did you g-give me those clothes to wear last n-night?" Hinata asked.

"Did you not like the outfit, mistress?" she asked, seemingly unconcerned. Suzume-san was on the other side of the room, folding up her closet bedding and stacking it in a small cabinet.

"N-no, I d-did. It is just. I d-don't normally wear anything like t-that," she admitted. "It was...v-very nice."

"Ah, I am glad, Mistress. Did Uchiha-sama like it?" she asked casually, her attention still focused elsewhere.

Hinata almost chocked in surprise, face blushing bright red. She couldn't respond and instead started fiddling with the clothes that had been laid out for her. The black silk pants were fitted like her blue capri training pants, but made of a much slicker material. It was similar to the indoor training clothing she'd worn at the Hyūga compound, but a much tighter fit. Suzume-san apologized for them not having any of her usual quilted undershirts ready, but gave her a thick cotton low-cut tank-top to wear under the armor instead to prevent chafing.

The gi was loose fitted silk with an odd open neckline and a black belt at the waist. It seemed like it was a little small and didn't close completely in the front, but Suzume-san insisted it was correctly sized and looked fine.

Then Hinata had to decide what to do with the tantō she'd been holding onto since last night. She started to return it to Suzume-san, as it was obviously a well-used weapon and possibly one of the woman's favorites. When she tried to hand it over, Suzume-san quietly pressed it back into Hinata's hands, wrapping her small fingers around the worn grip, then shaking her head and smiling, silently signaling the passing along of a precious gift. Hinata tried and failed to avoid crying at the gesture, which Suzume-san proceeded to ignore.

After silently wiping her eyes, Hinata had another problem with the weapon – where to put it. Once again, Suzume-san seemed to already see what she was looking for and silently brought out an arm band for the long knife's sheath, tying it on around Hinata's left arm under the jacket's sleeve.

"A blade elegant in its functionally suits your beauty well, Mistress. Good luck in your training." Suzume-san bowed deeply to her, a small smile on her face. Hinata grabbed her equipment belt and rushed off, blushing heavily, following the directions Sasuke-san had left with the servants that morning. She had to go to the basement of the Uchiha mansion and navigate some strange stairs into a large underground bunker area, which was odd, but fearing she was running late she didn't stop to look at the sights along the way.

Sasuke was waiting for her in the underground training room, sitting silently in the middle of a stone arena. The servant who had led her to the entrance had stayed outside and shut the large wooden doors behind Hinata. The arena was about three stories tall at it's tallest, with large stone pillars supporting the domed ceiling far above, spreading out on all sides about as large as the space in the Konoha arena.

She'd had no idea such a thing existed but wasn't greatly surprised. The Uchiha had a reputation as being both ancient, going back to before the founding of Konoha, and secretive – even amongst ninja clans no one knew much about their powers or organization.

The Last Uchiha sat on his knees, feet folded behind him in a traditional pose, eyes closed in meditation. Hinata wondered if looking cool and collected was a clan trait or just something about Sasuke-san specifically. It annoyed her a little how she always felt awkward and unbalanced around him, the same way her cousin Neji made her feel. She bowed into the training area and took a seat the same way opposite the young man and waited.

"Hyūga-san," he said after a few seconds, acknowledging her at last. "This training with be difficult. First of all, you must be aware that this is secret Uchiha clan training. It is not allowed for you to discuss it with outsiders. It is only because of our...special arrangement that I consider involving you." He paused for a few seconds, then opened his eyes and stared at her, Sharingan spinning lazily, boring into her soul. "This jutsu requires both great amounts of chakra and the Uchiha clan bloodline, so it would be no use to your clan in any case. But I will still require your word not to speak of it to anyone."

Hinata opened and closed her mouth a few times before finding her voice again. He'd know if she lied, she didn't know how, but she really didn't want to disappoint him for trusting her with this. It was to help them grow strong, after all. And she would have to figure out how to get along with Uchiha-san soon enough – as her cousin would say, that was her fate.

She was a little depressed by the thought that she was becoming as resigned to her fate as her cousin, but at least she was needed and useful to someone so powerful. She also felt something else, she wasn't sure what. It was both cold and hot at the same time, a tight feeling in her chest. It gave her hope, somehow. Maybe her own fate was not as dark and impossible to escape as she thought.

"I-I understand, Uchiha-san. I w-will not betray t-this secret to anyone," she said, surprised at her own firmness. Her eyes didn't waiver from his.

"Good," he said after a few more seconds watching her. Then he seemed to take in her outfit.

"Hinata, what is that you're wearing?" he asked, confused.

* * *

The Hyūga seemed more together today, Sasuke thought. But he was very confused by her outfit. It wasn't her usual stupid blue pants and dumb coat. She almost looked like a serious ninja, sort of like some of the Uchiha kunoichi he remember from his youth. From the clan records he'd read, they used their great skill, powerful eyes, and deadly beauty to complete their missions without a scratch. Often, they accomplished this without anyone remembering they'd even been there, the minds of the males they'd tricked seemly wiped of all memory of their passing. Their trademark look was an informal uniform: loose black silk jacket, fishnet armor, and...impressive cleavage.

Hinata was wearing exactly the same outfit, right down to the open front jacket showing off her impressive breasts, barely held in place by the thin fabric and fishnet armor. Sasuke now realized the power of this technique, unable to avoid being at least a little distracted by it. Matters weren't helped by his spinning Sharingan constantly suggesting predictions of how her breathing would move the pale, partially hidden globes and where her large nipples might be located based on their known geometry and the intelligence he'd gathered last night from the diaphanous blouse she'd worn.

The knowledge sat in his mind, a perverted predictive overlay on his vision. Yes, even here he could show his power. Lesser perverts like Kakashi could never understand this, would not realize the Sharingan's true abilities. Ripping his gaze away again, he realized she was speaking at last.

"A-ano...s-sorry, they haven't unpacked a-all of my clothes yet. I-If this isn't good, I can-"

"No, it's fine," he interrupted, a little too quickly. "We should begin now."

He gestured her forward. "Move closer. This is an area jutsu so while I practice it, it needs to be as limited as possible." She walked forward on her knees, sliding her hips and rotating her legs in a graceful martial-artist's slide. Sasuke was a little impressed but not surprised. The girl had practically grown up in a training hall, after all, and it showed in her skill in the difficult jūken style and her proper bearing in a dojo.

"Knees touching," he said shortly when she'd stopped a few inches away. She blushed bright red, eyes down, but slid up anyway.

"This is an advanced genjutsu," he said, impatiently explaining the details, "vision initiated, eye contact required to continue. It is unusual in one major respect: it requires both user and target to actively support the jutsu, making a consensual illusion that both parties must agree to. If either party wishes to discontinue it, they can simply stop channeling chakra to it. It is also very energy intensive and will leave us exhausted quickly. This is one reason it wasn't widely used by my clan – it required a skilled teacher and a student with unusual levels of power. It also isn't usable in combat, for obvious reasons, so many didn't bother to learn it and it fell into disuse."

"W-what does this technique do, Uchiha-san?" she asked, still flustered.

"Using this genjutsu, the teacher can create an artificial training environment for the student, allowing them to practice dangerous and destructive techniques at full power in a safe manner. The teacher uses their Sharingan to create this illusion based on their knowledge of the techniques being trained, running a functional model of the dojo for the student. This was created to train taijutsu but it can also allows the student to use high chakra cost jutsu over and over again, because the entire training experience is an illusion. I could use the Chidori a dozen times in a row in such training, or you could use the Kaiten endlessly without tiring.

"On the other hand, the teacher could limit the student to realistic power levels for illusory sparing matches or planning sessions, working out tactics that could be used in the real world. The only thing it can't do is allow a student to learn from scratch a skill the teacher doesn't know or allow the student to realistically use skills the teacher is entirely unaware of. A teacher wouldn't need to be masters of the skills, but they would need to know every detail of how it works to simulate it in the illusion and every step in training to allow someone else to learn it that way. The Sharingan allows this level of knowledge simply by observing the technique in the real world.

"Given all that, it is still an imperfect technique. The cost is high to both parties. The student has to contributes chakra and is able to resist the technique and break it easily. The student is required to have some input into the structure of the genjutsu, otherwise the illusion would quickly collapse. Most genjutsu have similar components to keep the illusions from breaking too early, but they still run primarily through the jutsu user constructing and running the illusion in their own mind, then overpowering the target's mind with the fake sense inputs. That target merely adds to the illusion by their mind buying into it and suggesting additions.

"This Uchiha jutsu, the Endless Garden, runs off of the student's mind fully. This allows it to be much more responsive, as it takes into account what the student thinks should be happening. Using this technique, in addition to taijutsu training I should be able to improve chakra use in many of by jutsu as well as in shunshin and body enhancements."

"T-that is amazing, Uchiha-san!" Hinata said, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "B-But if you don't actually use the jutsu, how can you l-learn how to s-shape your chakra correctly?"

"Well, my honored ancestors actually couldn't," he said, smirking. "This is an improvement of my own, realized once I began to master this technique. It is only possible because of you."

Hinata was stunned. "M-me?"

"Yes," Sasuke said, "the Byakugan's ability to see internal chakra structures in great detail will allow us to practice chakra molding inside the genjutsu, with your eyes able to construct and analyze the internal chakra states for the illusion. Your mind should be able to add an extra layer to the illusion, something beyond the physical.

"For most jutsu, it won't be worth it. We likely won't use this for jutsu training until we have a technique where we're trying to reduce hand seals or increase speed. At that point, it will be a huge advantage but the best use will still be full-powered sparing. For taijutsu, the extra layer of the illusion will allow you to use your jūken strikes and both of us to improve our chakra control. You'll simply have to see how the chakra flows in the body when the technique is used in the real world, then activate your Byakugan in the genjutsu, where it will function as you think it should. You'll then control the results, making badly executed techniques feel as they would and simulate their failing in our practice. We'll both run our dōjutsu in the illusion to maximize the quality of the simulation. This will, of course, be the illusion of dōjutsu, used while in the training simulation but not in real life, otherwise the genjutsu would be easily seen through by both of us, ruining the training."

"I-I think I understand, Uchiha-san." Hinata said, still looking a little overawed. "We b-both add our chakra to the technique and activate our e-eyes in the illusion only. I a-am ready to t-train." She bowed briefly to him and set her shoulders. Sasuke ran slowly through a long series of hand seals before whispering "Endless Garden." The world dissolved around them.

* * *

Hinata found herself sitting in the same room. Nothing had changed. She activated her Byakugan and took a look around. Something felt off, but she couldn't place it. Sasuke shifted in front of her, activating his Sharingan and looking around.

"A-ano..." Hinata started.

"We're in," Sasuke concluded. "Feel it out carefully. You should be able to sense the tug on your chakra system." Looking back at her, he froze, then blinked slowly, his Sharingan still active.

"Hinata," Sasuke said, hesitantly, still staring at her, "what happened to your clothes?"

Hinata had a horrible sense of déjà vu, quickly reviewing herself in her 360 degree vision. She saw nothing strange, just her chakra system and the shadow of her clothes. Confused, she considered and quickly realized she couldn't see Sasuke's chakra. In fact, he looked totally normal, as if she wasn't using the Byakugan.

"It seems you are currently projecting a self-image that is the same as what you usually see of yourself. We will need to practice this to avoid interference. Currently, we are overriding each others' dōjutsu to some extent."

Blushing and gasping, trying and then quickly giving up covering her chest, Hinata realized what Sasuke must be seeing – essentially, her naked body with a chakra system glowing through it. She frantically turned off her Byakugan, unable to look Sasuke in the eyes. She wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.

"Try again," Sasuke said, audibly amused.

Over the next ten minutes, they worked out how to have Hinata not project her naked body and Sasuke to allow the Byakugan to work as Hinata knew it should. There were running low on chakra and had to call an early end to that training for the day. Sasuke looked frustrated and left, undoubtedly to kick something for a few hours. Hinata decided to stay behind and work through some katas in the peacefully quiet stone room. She didn't notice when Sasuke returned to the room, slipping back into the room through the open door.

He stopped dead when he saw her practicing, noticing something he hadn't seen before – her black jacket had a symbol on the back. His clan's symbol, a white fan topped with blood red. He stood stunned for almost a minute, watching her snap through the katas, flowing from one to the next effortlessly, the tight black silk clinging to her rear and showing flashes of her pale chest as she spun and danced through the moves. All while wearing the symbol of the Uchiha. Shaking himself physically out of his trance, he grabbed the backpack he'd forgotten earlier on the floor and left the training room again.

Over the next several days, they were able to work out how to handle the consensual illusion details, reduce chakra drain, and actually attempt a few light taijutsu spars inside the illusion. Overall, the training was successful but progress was slow. Sasuke wasn't pleased, frequently berating her during their sessions and often he left without a word after they'd exhausted themselves, abruptly ending the training.

* * *

Hinata was still worried about her clothes even though Suzume-san assured her the coats weren't lost, simply stacked somewhere in one of several rooms full of boxes, packed so thick even the Byakugan couldn't sort out the mess. She ended up going to her first team practice after their disaster of a mission in yet more strange new clothes.

Suzume-san had not yet failed in her outfit selection, so by now Hinata had simply given up and wore whatever the woman gave her in the morning. Some of it was oddly cut and she'd been worried when she'd found out some of it had the Uchiha clan symbol on it, but Suzume-san had assured her it was fine for her to wear such items now.

The substitute outdoor training outfit Suzume-san had given her was a light-gray, near skintight sleeveless blouse, with a chest panel latched closed at her right shoulder and down the right side. At least it actually covered her entire chest this time, Hinata thought – some of Suzume-san's outfits would be cold if worn outside, especially there.

She had a formfitting silk undershirt and fishnet armor underneath it, with the long sleeves of the tight, elastic chain mail running down her bare arms. It had the Fire Country symbol on semi-detached sleeve shoulder patches hooked to the otherwise sleeveless body of the blouse, which she liked a lot, and the Uchiha clan fan on the back, which she wasn't sure about. A pair of loose black cargo pants stuffed with her equipment and weapons completed the outfit. Her new favorite long knife was strapped to her left arm over the armor.

She had spent a great deal of time practicing with the new clothing at training ground #72, with Sasuke-san looking on and smirking whenever she fumbled something out of a pants pocket. She had practiced until she instinctively knew where everything was, something she hadn't really planned to have to do before but Sasuke-san insisted she use something more than her fists in combat. Or else he threw sharp stuff at her until she responded correctly.

After a week of practicing only with Sasuke, Team 8's response was unexpected.

"Woah!" Kiba-san yelled as she approached the team's training area, "Who's the babe?" He was hanging upside down from a tree branch with Akamaru somehow also hanging onto his head. Akamaru barked in greeting.

"I believe that is our teammate, Hinata-san," Shino-san said blankly after a moment, answering the rhetorical question before realizing his glasses had slid down his nose when his jaw had dropped open. He calmly pushed them back up with one finger.

After staring for a second, Kurenai-sensei seemed to gather herself again. "Hinata-chan, good to see you again. I hope everyone is well rested and ready to train. Our last mission was unusually...intense, so it has been upgraded to A-ranked, with appropriate increase in payment. It will be so noted on your records and the difference between your original pay and your new mission level is available from the cashier at the assignments office immediately. Well done everyone." She had a small smile that grew slightly forced as she continued.

"Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, work on your chakra focusing exercises. You need to continue to improve the exploding power on your strikes. Use the training logs over there to practice. Continue until I return."

Taking Hinata by the shoulder, she led her away from the rest of the group and into the nearby wooded area. "Are you doing okay, Hinata-chan?" she asked quietly once they had some privacy, still holding her shoulder and looking into her eyes.

"Y-yes Kurenai-sensei, I'm fine." she said hesitantly. Kurenai-sensei continued to stare at her for a few more seconds, then sighed. "I have heard about your current...situation, Hinata-chan. This was very sudden and must be very hard on you."

"I g-guess so," Hinata said slowly. "I d-don't really understand w-why father did this to me." The girl was looking down now, clutching her hands together in front of her.

"I-I t-thought he...d-doesn't...w-why d-d-doesn't he l-love me a-any m-more, sensei?" she said, quietly starting to sob, shoulder shaking under her sensei's hand.

Kurenai-sensei cursed silently, jaw clenched, then quickly knelt in front of the her, moving her hands to Hinata's upper arms and softly stroking her. "No, no, Hinata-chan. Please don't misunderstand your father's reasoning – he did this to protect you."

"W-wha-" Hinata started, looking up with tear-stained eyes. Looking around carefully, Kurenai-sensei pulled Hinata closer, whispering into her ear.

"You were in danger at the Hyūga compound, Hinata-chan. Certain parties wanted you removed as heir to the Hyūga and were willing to kill you to make sure. Even declaring your sister Hanabi-san heir instead might not reassure them. There could still be succession issues if both you and your sister had sons, bringing the next head of the clan into question.

"This could happen even with your father's official declaration. Instead of trying to fight them and risk you and your sister's life in a political struggle that could embroil the entire Hyūga clan in a violent internal conflict, he used his power as the Uchiha clan heir's guardian to place you out of harm's way."

Backing off a bit and holding Hinata at arm's length, Kurenai-sensei looked into her eyes. "I know this is hard, Hinata-chan, but your father does love you and wants you to be safe. This kind of arranged marriage isn't uncommon in the larger ninja clans and among nobles." Sighing again, she gave the wide-eye girl another quick hug.

"I certainly can't say I like this situation, Hinata, but as of now there isn't anything to do. It will be more than three years before the actual marriage takes place and a lot can happen in that time." Kurenai-sensei tried to smile reassuringly, but really only grimaced.

"If you want talk or need help with anything, please come to me. I'll be here to help you if I can," she said, giving the girl's arms another squeeze.

"T-thank you, sensei," Hinata said. "A-actually, Uchiha-san i-isn't that b-bad." She blushed, fidgeting. "H-He wants to b-become stronger a-and I'm h-helping him train."

"I'm...glad to hear that, Hinata-chan. I was afraid Uchiha-san would be cold and distant," she said, surprised that the famous loner was voluntarily spending time with anyone, and certainly someone other than his teammates.

"W-well, he is kind of quiet sometimes," Hinata said, deep in thought. "And h-he acts mean s-sometimes but I d-don't think he's really like t-that at all." She blushed again suddenly, then continued, "He works h-hard, just like his teammate N-Naruto-kun!"

Surprised by the sudden outburst from the usually quiet young girl, Kurenai-sensei looked slightly reassured. "Good to hear, Hinata-chan. We should get back to the boys. I'm sure they need a change of pace by now."

As they started the walk back, Kurenai-sensei suddenly asked, "By the way, where did you get that new outfit, Hinata-chan?"

"A-Ano..." she stammered, "d-do you n-not like it, sensei?"

"I think it's great, Hinata-chan. You look very nice," the young jōnin added. Hinata blushed bright red and hid her head.

"Ahh, I got t-this from my new h-handmaiden and...b-bodyguard, I guess. She's f-from the branch family, a-assigned to the Uchiha clan now. Uhh, h-her name's Suzume." Kurenai-sensei missed a step and almost stumbled.

"Suzume...Hyūga?" Kurenai-sensei asked, eyebrows drawn together.

"Uhhh...y-yes, sensei?" Hinata responded at last, confused.

"Wow," Kurenai-sensei said, stunned. "Well, that explains the outfit," she muttered to herself, sighing again.

"She is a very strong kunoichi, Hinata-chan," Kurenai-sensei said out loud, "and she will work hard to protect you. Just...be careful of her fashion advice." Not understanding, Hinata nodded her head and followed Kurenai-sensei back to resume training with the rest of her team.

Remembering back to her encounters with Suzume Hyūga, Kurenai shook her head. Special Jōnin were often eccentric but Suzume-chan's wardrobe was legendarily perverted. Strange for the usually reserved Hyūga. Given her help, Kurenai was simply glad Hinata-chan had showed up even wearing a shirt at all. Or pants.


	11. Chapter 11

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

_Hinata flew over trees at impossible speeds. A strong, soft arm held her as she zoomed just above the leafy branches. The rest of her team was also clinging to the sides and back of that endlessly surprising woman, Fū. Kiba-san's arms were wrapped around her stomach, brushing against Hinata's, Shino-san's were around her neck, holding the young man onto Fū-san's back. Four strangely iridescent green wings blurred in the air just behind him. There was no way her wings could actually hold them up but such was the orange-eyed woman's incredible powers. Hinata's Byakugan showed the strange chakra flowing from her, glowing streams starting to overwhelm the natural blue of her...what seemed like human chakra system._

_Everything was in slow motion as Hinata glanced back, concentrating, searching behind them using tunnel viewing. It was easy to spot Kurenai-sensei running in the trees below and behind them, her vivid blue chakra glowing and surging in her limbs as she pushed them far beyond normal human performance. The power of a fully grown and experienced jōnin ninja was awesome to behold unleashed. It frightened Hinata more than a little that Fū-san's power easily eclipsed it._

_Refocusing back in again, she saw her teammates filled with normal looking chakra, reserves slightly dimmed from exhaustion. She could see panic on their faces, fear in their white-knuckled hands – even normally stoic Shino-kun was scared. She briefly wondered if he knew that she could always see behind his high collar, his dark glasses, see what he really felt in the small twitches of his hidden hands. Kiba-kun was almost vibrating with fear, but still had his eyes glued to their trail, ready to jump down and try and defend her at a moment's notice. She ignored her brave boys for now, focusing further out and behind them again, quickly losing that pure, complete sight of her immediate surroundings and regaining a telescopic view through the trees, reaching out hundreds of meters behind them._

_There. Horrible, dark chakra. Two of them. One human-shaped but again oddly tainted, this time with pure black strands of evil, inky, bubbly chakra. The other...strangely complicated, seemingly possessing human chakra and also human-shaped externally but full of twisted, insane shapes inside. Burning suns of chakra, tied together by yet more chakra. Every fiber of his body was filled with tainted power. It was blue, human for sure, but dark. Dark and...evil._

_She quickly took another look at the orange chakra in the young woman who was carrying her. There was something there, something Fū-san's chakra reminded her of. Something that wasn't the same as with these two evil men. It wasn't a bad thing, just...intense, fearsome, violent. Like Fū-san, but different. More familiar, mixed in with something...comforting. Hinata had seen it before...somewhere. It was. On the edge. Of her. Thoughts._

Hinata woke in a start, gasping. "Oh no," she thought, taking heaving breaths, "I almost had it! What am I forgetting?"

Suzume-san was somehow standing beside her now, not a second later. Hinata noticed her bodyguard was on the opposite side from her free hand (the other was holding the still-sheathed tantō).

"Mistress," Suzume-san whispered, the air barely moving from her shunshin next to Hinata, "are you well?" She was out of range of any wild knife swings, Hinata noticed, and that combined with her readiness showed Suzume-san had read previous reports on how Hinata reacted to being surprised awake. Hinata blushed, embarrassed..

"Y-yes, sorry Suzume-san. Just a bad dream. It was...that mission." Suzume-san nodded once, understanding. She already knew some of the details of the disastrous scouting mission – Hinata's part and the chase, at least, which wasn't exactly a secret. Hinata hadn't babbled to her about it but the physical toil had been clear when Suzume-san helped her take that bath. And then the new nightmares had started. Suzume-san hadn't said much but seemed to know the difference between Hinata's usual fears and this new terror. Her countermeasures had been both kind and effective.

Though Hinata still slept with her new favorite knife, she had moved out of the closet and onto a cot in the sitting room, behind a couch. The traps were set up every night as a sort of ritual and Suzume-san still slept in the same room, now on the couch. It was a very nice cot. The couch wasn't bad either, Suzume-san had assured her. It was still early, but that just meant Hinata could get some breakfast without running into Sasuke-san.

The Uchiha mansion was amazingly well decorated, filled with fine furniture and art and as well appointed as the Hyūga compound but with a much more modern sensibility. It was comfortable to live in and quietly efficient in design, with a lot less time needing to be spent outside, moving between sub-buildings on covered porches. Hinata was finally feeling more comfortable and less like a guest in the house, quickly and efficiently getting ready for her team meeting that morning.

After a thankfully peaceful D-ranked mission and a long training session with her team, she once again joined Sasuke-san for their special training in the cavernous Uchiha training ground. "You're late, Hyūga," said the pacing young Uchiha. He glared directly at her, Sharingan spinning slowly. Hinata flinched briefly but continued into the room, sitting in the formal kneeling position at her usual spot. He stopped pacing and stomped over to her, taking his own spot which was now further from her but still close enough to limit the initial area of the technique.

Hinata wasn't looking forward to this – they'd made almost no progress in the last week and Sasuke-san was increasingly frustrated. They still weren't able to use complex jutsu inside the illusion and were having serious issues with making a consistent chakra simulation layer using her Byakugan, forcing them to run endless combat drills to diagnose all the issues. The last two sessions had been entirely silent, with neither of them saying a word. Today, after five minutes in the illusion, he angrily broke the genjutsu, glaring at Hinata again, this time with his Sharingan off.

"Hyūga, what are you doing?" he asked coldly.

"A-ano..." Hinata stuttered, staring at the ground between them, clutching her black silk gi closed with her hands.

"Why aren't you attacking correctly with your jūken?" he demanded. "If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, this training is meaningless!" She flinched away from him, hands clutching her legs.

"You don't even have a real body in there. Are you a coward, Hyūga? Afraid to die even in an illusion?" He was almost yelling now, voice harsh and accusing. Jumping to his feet, he pointed at her, "How will you defend you teammates and yourself if you can't even train seriously? If you can't become strong enough to fight beside them, what use are you?"

Hinata's hands were now fists and her shoulders were shaking. Sasuke-san looked at her with scorn. "If you can't bring yourself to hurt someone, even an illusion, I am finished with you. Your weakness will just get you and your friends killed. You should give up on being a ninja." He started to turn and leave, ending the training session and possibly their entire...whatever this was.

Maybe it was a PMS thing, something Kiba-san said in rude jokes when he thought females weren't in hearing rage – jokes which he didn't seem to really understand or mean anyway, but that was Kiba-san for you. Perhaps it was a side-effect from having died painfully in the genjutsu five times in the last minute. Maybe it was her emotions being affected by what Kurenai-sensei called "hormones," something that teenagers had to deal with she said. It could have been the implied threat to her friends, the suggestion to give up on her dream, or the image of her sister lying bleeding and dying on the ground because Hinata was too weak that popped into her head.

Hinata's eyes grew wide and her jaw clenched as a flood of adrenaline shot into her system. Her Byakugan activated as if on its own. The dam broke and she practically teleported to her feet.

* * *

Sharingan off, turning away, he didn't notice her sealless shunshin, missed the cloud of leaves (tiny tealeaves, if he'd been paying attention, but he wasn't so it didn't matter) where she disappeared, didn't notice the pop of air of her arriving directly in front of him a fraction of a second later, and then her closed fist impacted his face. Stumbling, his head snapped back up and he looked at Hinata with shock, just noticing her strongly flaring killing intent. Her face was full of fury and anger, Byakugan fully activated, eyes burning with indignation. Instead of the weeping little girl he'd been expecting, he saw a very dangerous ninja. Before he could even activate his eyes, she was slamming another fist into his face, a perfect crossing blow striking like lightning.

Rage filled him and his cursed mark burned like a coal under his skin. Barely holding himself together, he activated his eyes, the Sharingan spinning up and whirling around rapidly. Eyes flickering to his rampaging attacker, he faked a stumble to one side, turning slightly, then kicked her square in the face without even looking back. A cool, stylish blow to show her how far beneath him she was. Neither of them were using enhanced blows yet, but they were both well trained and extremely muscular young taijutsu experts. The sound of the strike echoed throughout the huge stone room.

Faster than his next heartbeat, she was sliding past the leg, incredibly soft-touches rendering it numb and useless after fractions of a second of burning pain. Then she grabbed the limb and used it as a lever to slam him into the hard stone floor in a bone crushing judo take down. Her arms were strong metal cables wrapped around his leg, allowing no escape. His attempt to counter this move was hindered by the fact that he hadn't considered another strike and didn't really think of her as a serious opponent. The Sharingan gave him exact predictions on how his body would rotate into the ground in exactly two-tenths of a second.

His back and head had barely made contact with cold stone when she was on him, a vengeful goddess straddling his lower chest with legs like a vise. Her pale fists rained down incredibly fast, his Sharingan the only reason he was able to keep up. Flashes of her pale, armored breasts added wonderfully useless information to his rapidly failing visual analysis.

Though he couldn't see her internal system, he could still tell her chakra wasn't flaring on her limbs, so she wasn't even enhancing the speed or strength of her muscles. He took most of the blows on his arms but was unable to twist out of the way or strike back without getting hit worse than he was or escalating with his own chakra use.

So he took the hit. Hits actually, her speed was insane. It hurt, but he was able to grab an arm and awkwardly twist his body to toss her off him and across the room. She tumbled briefly then slapped the ground and magically levitated onto her feet. Or something like that – his head was ringing and the Sharingan wasn't giving him entirely understandable information. Most of it right now involved predictive soft tissue physics simulations and related replays of the fantastic breakfall he'd just witnessed. The rest of the information felt scrambled. Likely, he simply couldn't understand it because of a light concussion.

He managed something almost as graceful with a half-hearted kip-up, his back and one leg flexing like a whip as he popped to his feet. Foot, really. He still couldn't feel one leg. But he still managed to stand upright. Just in time to get punched in the face again, then kneed in the side. He had boxed her in the right ear almost reflexively, which was the only reason she didn't get him in the stomach. He also got in a couple of rib hits before taking another knee, this time her left to his outer right thigh – right on his good leg, the one that could still feel. Ouch.

She finally ended that brief engagement by slamming both of her palms directly into the center of his chest, an advanced jūken blow that would have killed him if she'd actually powered it sufficiently with chakra. It made his kick to her head seem gentle by comparison, even though that strike had almost floored her. He slid back several feet and fell down simply because he didn't have two working legs. Years of shinobi training allowed him to gracefully drop to one knee while still looking cool doing it, like it had been on purpose.

* * *

Hinata had closed the distance to Sasuke-san again, eyes still burning with anger, entirely ready to keep pounding his stupid face in, when she heard a strange noise. Sasuke was laughing long and low then he spat blood to one side, light red splattering the cold stone floor. Still laughing, eyes crazed and Sharingan spinning slowly, he sat there and smiled at her.

"Hegh, woleh. Gahk. Yeah, not bad. Again Hyūga, this time in the genjutsu," he said, chuckling. "You still hit like a girl, though. And if you don't take out my heart with that last strike every time, I'll kick your ass again in the real world." He was pointing to a spot across from him now, waiting.

"I, I, you!" she shouted, her torn knuckles dripping blood on the ground. "I try so _hard _and you are so _mean_ and you just keep pushing me, Uchiha-san! It is not right to do this to me, you, you ass!" she yelled, remembering some of the insults Kiba-san always used (but never to her). Catching her breath, she continued to glare at him, chest heaving.

"You are hurt more than I am," she pointed out frostily, stomping over to the indicated place, wiping the blood off her chin from a split lip. "Did not even break my nose this time, Uchiha-san." Sitting down, she winced briefly.

"Only cracked one rib. My little sister hits harder. Wimp," she concluded, probing her side with her fingers, remembering another useful Kiba-ism (that happened to be true). Hinata didn't notice she wasn't stammering or stuttering.

"Hn," he replied, staring deep into her eyes while preparing the hand seals. "Again," he said, activating the genjutsu, smirking through the blood dripping down his face.

* * *

By the time they left the training room, they were both staggering from near chakra exhaustion and covered in various amounts of dried blood, contusions, and head trauma, still muttering curses at each other. Suzume had been waiting patiently for them outside the closed doors. When she saw them she simply sighed then dragged them off to the Konoha Hospital.

The nurses were glad to see Sasuke again and made horrible cooing noises, but some seemed to be recognizing the relationship between a thrashed Uchiha heir and the Hyūga girl with the bloody knuckles. Deflecting all question with grunts and by just ignoring the annoying females as usual, Sasuke managed to avoid leaking any vital mission intelligence to the enemy (annoying females).

Hinata was quietly furious the entire time, sitting at a neighboring first aid station waiting for a nurse and glaring at Sasuke from under her bangs. Because of Suzume's quiet stares, most of the fangirl nurses didn't dare to harass Hinata about whether or not she had been the one to beat the Uchiha beauty's face bloody. Field Medic Trainee Haruno, however, was oblivious to the looming ex-Special Jōnin.

"SASUKE-KUN!" she screamed on seeing her long-time crush. "What happened to your FACE?" Long periods of time away from the sonic attack had left Sasuke unprepared, and he winced in pain.

"Sakura," he said in cold, minimal greeting, not looking at his pink-haired teammate.

"Areyouokohgodwhathappened?!" she babbled at him, trying to push the actual medical professionals away from him to get a better look.

"Leave me alone. You're annoying," he said in a monotone, pushing her hands away from his face. Sasuke, looking anywhere but Sakura, noticed Hinata's blank stare and shivered for some reason. Her eyes were locked on the back of the loud girl's head in a most unsettling way – Sasuke could have sworn she'd activated her Byakugan for a second.

* * *

Shrinking back slightly from Sasuke, Sakura finally noticed Hinata's presence. Turning on the quiet girl, a cruel smile briefly crossed Sakura's face when she saw how disheveled the young kunoichi looked. "I've got nothing to worry about," she thought viciously. "There is no way this grimy mess is going to distract Sasuke-kun from the beauty of his cute teammate. Might as well practice this week's triage lessons on this pathetic girl."

"Hyūga-san, right?" she said, looking down at the girl. "What ha-" she started to say, stopping when she mentally completed her initial review of her injuries.

"It can't be," Sakura thought with shock, eyes skipping from bruised face to bloody knuckles to bloody black silk training clothing, "she couldn't possibly..." Glancing back at Sasuke-kun, she connected the dots.

"What did you do to Sasuke-kun!" she demanded, voice rising in panic. The Hyūga shrunk back from the verbal assault, looking confused. Everyone in the ninja treatment ward was now looking around at the disturbance.

"I-I d-didn't, I m-mean, U-Uchiha-san a-and I were t-training and-" she started stammering, only to be interrupted.

"How dare you hurt Sasuke-kun! You bitch!" Sakura screamed, a vein standing out on her forehead. Her fist was already clenched and swinging before she knew it. The Hyūga's eyes were full of shock and her hands had started to move lightning fast, possibly to try and intercept her fist, but it never got that far.

A huge gust of wind swept past her as her fist impacted the wall, leaving a small crater. Suddenly, she realized Sasuke-kun was standing right behind her, his hand on her wrist, having diverted the strike instead of it impacting on the wide-eyed girl's head. Hinata's hands were held frozen in front of her face in some kind of defensive stance, but she didn't move, staring over Sakura's shoulder at Sasuke-kun. Sakura looked back in shock, directly into Sasuke-kun's face. His cold, black eyes weren't looking at her, but over her shoulder at something else.

"Sakura, do you have any idea what you almost did?" he said quietly, still holding her wrist at the wall. She didn't move, couldn't say anything, frozen in place by his presence, his touch. "You are supposed to be smart. When you figure it out, I assume you will know what to do."

His eyes locked with hers, suddenly full of spinning tomoe shapes on a red background. A strange power as huge as the Hokage Monument fell over her, buckling her knees. She would have fallen if he hadn't been holding her up by the arm; instead she sort of hung there in shock, hand like a vise on her wrist, back pressed to his rock-solid chest, eyes locked to his. Mind almost blank from fear, she barely heard when he leaned over and whispered his command into her ear.

"Go. Now."

She was at the exit arch from the treatment area before realizing she'd even moved, her feet apparently working on their own. Sakura's heart was beating like it was trying to escape from her chest and she felt like cotton had been stuffed into her head. Looking back with an effort, her body trying to disobey, she saw Sasuke-kun still standing there, now leaning toward the Hyūga and saying something quietly to her. Hinata was still shaking a little but then quieted down as she listened. That was when Sakura noticed the jacket Hinata was wearing. It was obviously not part of the outfit, but something thrown on over what was usually indoor training clothing.

Gray, stylish – but not Hinata's usual style, now that Sakura thought about it. Fire Country patch symbols on each shoulder. And a large white and red fan shape on the back, matching the one Sasuke-kun himself was wearing. Eyes snapping wide, Sakura fled around the corner, hiding with her back to the wall, her mind racing. It wasn't legal for anyone but clan members to wear clan symbols, she remembered, and that wasn't ignored even for almost-dead clans like the Uchiha. All clans took it seriously.

"Maybe it was Sasuke-kun's and he just put in on her," she considered, confused. But she recalled that the cut was wrong – it was far too small and also a woman's style, one correctly sized for the apparently shamelessly large Hyūga. Memories of half-seen fishnet chain armor over seemingly endless rounded pale flesh entered her mind. That was news to Sakura, too, but not something to focus on right now.

Then she remembered the silent retainer, the one she'd ignored previously. The woman had the Hyūga eyes so Sakura had assumed it was a Hyūga clan ninja guarding Hinata, who was after all the heiress. But Sakura's almost perfect memory now recalled the headband she'd been wearing. Not a Konoha ninja headband but a cloth band with another symbol on it. The Uchiha clan symbol again. Sasuke-kun's mean final words to her (but only because he was so busy and had a tragic past, not because he was a cruel person, she reminded herself) came to mind and she realized she still didn't have any answers, only more questions.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sakura wondered.


	12. Chapter 12

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

"I-Is this how it is g-going to be, Uchiha-san?" she asked quietly. Sasuke-san, walking a few steps ahead and to her left, ignored her. Suzume-san was walking behind them, on Hinata's right and a few steps back. Part of Hinata's brain noticed it was a standard travel formation, right echelon, meant to protect the center member with strong rear defense in this case because of the trailing senior member.

Correct response to an ambush was to scatter, removing the chance of a single large ninjutsu taking everyone out. Members would regroup at the next emergency waypoint after disengaging, forming a retreating battle line to cover their escape with the stronger members providing ranged fire for the weaker or close-range members. In other words, protecting her and giving her the best chance to escape because she was the weakest.

Hinata was still shaking a little from the earlier encounter, switching her Byakugan on and off at irregular intervals to scan her surroundings. Flickering lines and shapes covered her vision as she took in the immediate area. All buildings nearby (two-story, wooden, no termites) were empty storefronts with storage rooms. The street had a few people walking past, none registered as ninja level except for her party. She scanned ahead and down the next street as well as behind her. Two ninjas, each appeared to be chūnin level, were walking away from them on a side street. Byakugan pulled back out of tunnel mode, again seeing her immediate area in perfect detail – about a thirty feet diameter, full 360 degrees (well, 358 minus her blind spot, but one didn't usually think about that – turning your head even slightly corrected for it).

Sasuke-san was walking in front of her, Sharingan off. She saw Suzume-san had her Byakugan on also, her eyes glowing with chakra. Hinata blushed and immediately shut hers down. It wasn't exactly polite to just turn it on like that if you weren't on duty or training and Suzume-san must have noticed.

"Uchiha-san," Hinata growled, walking closer to him and speaking a little louder.

"Hn," he grunted in reply.

"W-Will your fangirls try to punch me every time we are in public, Uchiha-san?" she said, acid in every clipped syllable.

"Hn," he grunted in amusement. After a few more steps, he half-turned his head toward her. She could see his smirk now. "Next time, punch back. Weakling." Slightly shocked, Hinata kept walking with him in silence.

"I know she is your teammate, Uchiha-san," she started.

"Hn," he commented neutrally.

"But I could have taken her."

"Hn," he agree, after a few moments.

"Next time, Uchiha-san, please do not interfere."

"Hn," he said noncommittally. After walking another block, he added, "It wouldn't have been a Kami-damned double knockout, that's for sure Hyūga." Hinata smiled tightly, thinking of the only fight of the prelims more embarrassing than hers, and kept walking. She was almost sure the usually quiet and professional Suzume-san hadn't just stifled a snort behind her, but it had sure sounded like it.

When they finally reached the Uchiha compound walls, Sasuke-san finally slowed to a stop, standing and staring at the open gates in front of him and the empty streets beyond. Turning slightly and glancing back at Suzume-san, he made a slight gesture with his head. Suzume-san quickly walked past them and through the gates, leaving Sasuke-san and Hinata alone.

Hinata slowly moved to stand just behind him, waiting quietly with her hands folded in front of her, not looking at him. She wasn't really mad at the bastard right now and was really tired but a Hyūga could do coldly polite all day. It was almost a secondary Bloodline (tertiary if you counted Suzume-san's quiet jokes about typical Hyūga bust size). A quick check of the area showed the Hyūga guards patrolling a ways off and Suzume-san waiting just inside the gates, out of sight around the wall. Sasuke-san sighed deeply, then turned around, leaving Hinata to look at him with the barren streets as the backdrop.

"Hyūga...Hinata-san, you've got a problem," he said, staring off to one side, not looking at her.

"W-what?" Hinata said, surprised.

"Not we, you see. Because of your father, I have gained something I technically need, however bothersome and in my way it is right now. Namely, you."

Hinata stood there, shocked – it was the first time Sasuke-san had mentioned their betrothal contract, forced on them by her father for reasons she still didn't fully understand. She started to fidget, grabbing the front of her coat and holding it closed with numb fingers.

"I don't know what that bastard Hiashi told you, Hinata-san," Sasuke-san growled, teeth clenched, "but I didn't know about this before the day he shoved you out the door and had his little private meeting with me. I didn't ask for this and I assume you didn't either."

She shook her head, not sure if he even saw. He continued, "My teammates all already know this about me, so you should know it as well. I only have two goals, just two, but I'll never give up until they are complete. There is a man I must kill. Not want to kill. I will kill him."

Sasuke-san now looked directly into her eyes, face filled with hate. "I know you have a...a kind heart, so if it matters, he deserves it. He deserves it more than anyone I know, more even that scum Orochimaru. He is stronger than the snake Sannin, more horrible by far, and he will die by my hand."

Hands clenched into fists, Sasuke-san stood quietly for a moment, then looked aside again, not meeting her horrified gaze. Caught in whatever personal hell of memories was torturing him, he raged silently. Almost a minute later he finally relaxed. Now hesitant, he seemed at a loss for words, rubbing his neck briefly with one hand.

"It is the other that...concerns you. Until that bastard Hiashi's announcement, I hadn't really thought about what it would mean." Swallowing in a sudden gulp, he put his hands in his pockets and slouched again.

"The other is...I will restore my clan, the Uchiha." Confused, Hinata scrunched up her forehead and tried to understand. Then she gasped. Sasuke winced, still not looking at her.

"Yes. I had not really...considered what that would mean. I assumed I would complete my other objective first and simply, uhh, worry about the second later. Then you showed up." Hinata was near fatally embarrassed, but also more afraid than she'd ever been. The thoughts she'd been shoving to the back of her mind all through her team's awful patrol mission and Sasuke-san's intensive genjutsu training suddenly returned and she had to face them.

As the wife of a clan head, there was virtually no way she could be an active kunoichi. As the wife of the head of a nearly dead clan, there was absolutely no other job for her but one. Repopulating the clan. She'd be expected to have almost one child a year, essentially until her body gave out. Which, for a fully trained and powerful kunoichi with modern medical support, might not be until late middle-age. There was a reason small clans preferred strong kunoichi brides, so they could be pregnant nine months out of the year, virtually forever.

She wouldn't, she couldn't do that; even if the marriage wasn't for three years still, she'd never agree to that. Wait, as a genin, she was a legal adult. She didn't have to do this, she'd run away first.

Except, she remembered, the Uchiha (through her own father) could call in a breach of contract complaint with the Hyūga (_also_, sickeningly, her father) and, legal-adult or not, she'd not work another day as a Leaf kunoichi ever again. They would "let her go" from the position and blacklist her for life if the Hyūga could show cause for security concerns – an easy charge to make stick on your own clanswoman. She could flee the Uchiha compound but she couldn't escape her family obligations.

"How can I get out of this?" she thought, "Why didn't I spend some time thinking this through earlier?" Her head spun.

Even in Konoha's relatively liberated society, Fire Country itself being very much the front runner of woman's rights, this was still something clan law covered. If she refused to...accept her fate, or tried to fight her new "job," it would be grounds for an immediate divorce and would be a breach of contract – her clan would be dishonored and she could face strict punishments, both financial and personal. She certainly wouldn't be allowed to be a kunoichi then, and her family had the right under clan law to simply brand her with the cursed seal and throw her into the branch house. Most likely, she'd never see her sister or father again, unless it was a general clan gathering or village parade of some sort.

Her mind went into overdrive and she started to shake. She couldn't technically be (oh god) _forced_ to do anything with the Uchiha like...like that, but the alternatives were very, very bad. They would seal her, she would not work as a ninja again, they would take her sister from her. She couldn't run away from the village – she had only the tiny amount of money she'd gathered from some D and C rank missions, and that certainly wouldn't be enough to keep her going long.

Hinata had been using that as spending money to treat her team to snacks or buy personal equipment with and hadn't been saving very carefully. She could run away now from the Uchiha and, since she was a genin, no one would legally be able to do anything to stop her. But she would _stop _being a legal adult the second the Hyūga pulled her Leaf genin status. Then she was a minor and they could drag her back with the Konoha police force, if necessary. She would go to the branch house with a brand-new tattoo on her head the same day, guaranteed.

It wouldn't get better after that. Fleeing later, after she became an adult, wouldn't get her out of being sealed – clan law guaranteed that. Hunter-nin would track her down then, if necessary. And the only jobs available in the branch house to a woman with no ninja rank was as a housemaid or manual laborer in a non-sensitive position, and those jobs were still much better than any a 16 year old girl with no additional training could get outside the clan. She would likely be working awful jobs for life, even if she wanted to leave the clan (with a cursed seal on her forehead) after she was an adult in the eyes of the law again.

Sasuke-san was as much as saying that she was his to use to restore his clan, given to him by her own father. She would now be forced to quit her ambition to be a strong kunoichi, either soon or when she was married in three years at 16. At least Cloud had only planned on killing her and surgically removing her eyes – only male clan members could pass on the Bloodline, so holding her captive and raping her over and over for more Byakugan- eyed children (the worst case nightmare she'd considered in her darkest hours) wouldn't have worked. But that was essentially what Sasuke-san and her father had planned for her by forcing this marriage, and this way it would work for them. She'd be pregnant with Sharingan-eyed babies until she died or her body gave out. Sure, she had a choice, but only in how she wanted to lose her dreams.

"I-I...I h-had n-n-not...I d-d-didn't t-think," she started to stammer, sliding away from him a step, shivering uncontrollably. "Y-you are j-just as b-bad as Cloud! Y-you'll s-steal me and t-take what y-you w-want from m-me and you d-don't care!"

It didn't matter the cost, she wouldn't let them have her, she had to run. She'd die first before she'd let them take her away again. She wouldn't let them take her. Her hand shook as it slowly went to her left arm for her tantō; thankful she always wore the full equipment set, even to indoor practice. Her eyes flared to life, the world slipping into total view again. Everyone was still about where they were before, but it looked like Suzume-san was starting to move, perhaps reacting to her outburst.

Sasuke-san's eyes flew open (but didn't activate, yet) and he started violently back from her. "Fuck!" he cursed, almost yelling, quickly holding up his empty hands to her. "No, no, no! Calm down, Hinata-san! I'm not like fucking Cloud! I have no intention of stealing you away against your will, of using you for some, some _twisted_ purpose!"

Hinata's hand froze on the handle of her large knife, muscles tensed to fight or run or die trying. She was breathing heavily and her full vision was pushed out farther than she'd ever had it before, 40 feet maybe. Suzume-san had frozen, just out of line-of-sight (for normal people), her Byakugan also activated. The other guards were starting to respond, their Byakugans activated now.

"Just wait, Hinata-san, please," he said, hands still empty, Sharingan still off. "I don't need a knife at my back from some foolish woman who hates me, someone who can't stand me and is barely putting up with me! Damn it all, I started this backward. Just calm down for a second," he said, not moving. Suzume-san was still frozen, the guards were moving to investigate from the shadows.

"W-what, you mean you, you don't want...an _heir_ as soon as possible?" Hinata demanded, holding her ground but still not relaxing. "You mean to tell me that isn't why I'm becoming your _wife_?"

"You don't understand," he said more quietly, lowering his clenched fists to his sides and glaring at the ground. "That isn't what I want, not at all. I've been thinking about this for a while now, since your idiot father surprised me. I, I need someone like, like another Mito Uzumaki of legend, wife of the First Hokage – someone who fought by his side and helped defeat a rampaging demon! Like apparently everyone from that idiot Naruto's crazy old dead clan, someone fearless and with insanely huge chakra reserves." He smirked, then faltered again.

"I didn't know...she was related to Naruto-kun?" she said, surprised despite herself.

He nodded. "That's what I figure. It makes sense at least."

He paused and seemed hesitant to continue. "What I need...I need someone like my, like-" he face fell and he made a small sound, something like a cough, just once and quietly, almost instantly getting control again and clearing his face.

Continuing in a cold monotone, face blank, he said, "I need someone like the powerful Jōnin kunoichi, Mikoto Uchiha – master of the sword arts, equal to any of the legendary Seven Swordsmen." Hinata's eyes grew wide as she realized that must have been one of Sasuke's relatives who'd been slaughtered that terrible night, someone he had known, possibly well.

He stopped and took several deep breaths. "Whoever I marry will be someone to stand strong by my side, to help defeat my foes. Someone to restore my clan with me honorably, as an equal, not someone to cower pathetically in my shadow and, and simply produce _heirs_." He spat out the last word, turning his head, not looking at her still.

"If your father thinks I'll simply quit being a ninja and settle down with you in three years – make a bunch of little Uchiha to show how skilled he is at restoring the poor, once-dead clan – then quietly become his political puppet when I get full leadership at 21, he is stupider than even his recent actions suggest." Sasuke was now looking directly at her, eyes filled with scorn. Hinata frowned at the continuing insults of her father, but stayed silent.

"If you think you have what it takes to be a legendary kunoichi, you are welcome to apply for the job in three years," he said smirking again, doubt clear in his voice. "If not, or if you're simply still as weak as those useless fangirls, I'll just ignore you until I'm 21 and clan head of the Uchiha in my own right and then get a perfectly legal divorce in civilian court.

"With no children, and there _would be no children_ in that scenario, such a legal dissolution would be easy. Then you'll be free to do...whatever. Maybe your clan will have some duties for you, I don't really care. Hiashi Hyūga-_sama_," he said sarcastically, "won't _dare _remove me, famous celebrity of the village, from active duty even if I squash his Uchiha breeding program plans. I'll continue to be a shinobi and grow stronger, no matter what."

"What I won't do, _Hyūga_," he spat the word like a curse, "is demean myself to even _touch_ someone I think less than worthy of the proud position of my wife. I'll no more force you to do something like that than I'd date those annoying fangirls who follow me around. If you want, you can tell that bastard father of yours I said so." He then turned his back to her again and continued through gates, slouching once more with his hands shoved in his pockets.

At some point, Hinata's Byakugan had deactivated, almost without her noticing. She now stood with her fingers on the tantō's handle, completely still and mind blank. That was more words than she thought she'd ever heard him say about himself ever, total. And once again, he'd managed to scare her breathless, reassure her, and call her a worthless weakling, practically in the same sentence and while looking coolly distant

Even with her kind outlook on people, there was only so much abuse she could accept, especially from someone not in her family. It had taken awhile, but Hinata thought she was now genuinely starting to hate Sasuke Uchiha. It was going to be a long eight years.

* * *

Sulking in his private study at the Uchiha mansion later that night, Sasuke finally opened the Uchiha clan information packet that prick Hiashi Hyūga had sent him. It was mostly boring: endless lists of farms in Fire Country owing very modest rent to the Uchiha, buildings leased to merchants in the Konoha town proper, and most horrific and sad of all, a fat stack of paper listing the summarized wills of all the Uchiha dead.

Because of the clan's mutuality agreement, all deaths leaving no legal family heir resulted in the property and funds being returned to the clan's general fund for use in furthering clan business. Usually it would be gifted out again to some young couple or as a business loan to a hungry young Uchiha businessperson.

In this case, everyone was dead. Everyone but Sasuke and his hated brother – who was also technically listed as dead here, he noticed. Barely avoiding shredding the paper with his bare hands, he moved on. There was also a copy of the family tree, now virtually ended, except for- he moved on again.

Looking carefully over the copy of Hinata's betrothal agreement, he noted that he had, in fact, remembered the clan law correctly. There were more...severe and binding agreements possible in Hyūga tradition, he was sure, but the Uchiha were very modern in their approach and didn't allow women to become slaves to their husbands, like some nobles and clans even here in Fire Country. This betrothal was a standard Uchiha contract. He briefly smirked at the idea of his mother being a quiet, compliant, perfect little wife like some Hyūga bastard would likely prefer. Like they had tried to make Hinata, he thought – the smirk was wiped away quickly.

What was he going to do with her? He couldn't simply ignore her – she was too valuable an asset in training. He almost had this strange new training genjutsu working, and he could use it even better than the Uchiha had in the past if he could just get her eyes to help!

He could practice endless fireballs, complex strategies, alpha strikes and long-game attrition strategies, then reset his simulated chakra and run the jutsu again without any rest. Well, for 30 minutes at a time at least, based on his current progress. He still couldn't get the time compression working, not that he'd tell Hinata about it until he did.

Should he even be including her in this secret training? It was technically a clan secret, and though she'd technically be in the clan in three years (and for at least 5 more after that) could he actually trust her?

He eventually concluded it likely didn't matter – as he had previously realized it would be useless without the Uchiha eyes. And there were only two pairs out there now. He'd kill the man with the other soon enough. Maybe if he ever found his invincible super-kunoichi his children would one day have Sharingan of their own. Until then, the secret was safe enough.

Despite his rant to Hinata, he didn't really think that would happen. Maybe after killing his brother he'd give up on being a shinobi and lower his standards. A mental image entered his mind of a grinning Sakura making a v-for-victory sign in one hand, the other holding a black-eyed baby with dark hair and pink frosted tips. He shivered uncontrollably. Not that low, he promised himself.

It was late but he wanted to get this done. It wasn't like he was going to get any sleep anytime soon as it was. His office was quiet and cozy, filled with warm-toned wooden furniture, and he felt like he could spend all night here. He almost missed his centrally located apartment where he'd lived until last month – it was right in the middle of everything and he could basically fall out of bed and into the busy city streets – but it didn't have anything like this. He'd always had the option to live in the clan mansion but he'd almost never done it, usually just dropping by on the anniversary of...that night, holding a silent vigil over a picture of his parents. Maybe he should have moved here long ago. Some of the things he'd been finding were incredibly useful.

Sure, that jutsu needed someone with an equal dōjutsu to his to make it work, but it had improved his reaction time, taijutsu forms, and genjutsu use by leaps and bounds. That idiot Naruto would be surprised at how much stronger he was now. No matter how long that loser trained, there was no way he'd have gotten much better. Even training with a legendary shinobi like Jiraiya wouldn't matter for someone that idiotic.

Finally, he turned to some of the last documents in the pile. Knowing he was almost done, he simply scanned over them (something about future clan development plans) and started to put away the entire huge pile in a large desk drawer. Then he stopped, eyes wide, Sharingan suddenly activated and spinning.

He went back several pages, back past the farming expansion plans and average cost per family estimates for household servants, to the page titled, "Clan Head Family Planning." Sounded simple enough, but something had seemed...there it was. An almost empty sort of pseudo-family-tree placed him and (gah, of course) Hinata as the predicted parents of three to twelve Uchiha children, with all possible results of male and female children for the first four kids and how that affected the heirs assignments, notes on other pages with contingency plans for each and how to avoid succession issues.

"A little icky for something involving human beings, but that's clans for you," he thought.

He was missing something about that analysis but he wasn't sure what. Sharingan still spinning, he memorized pages at a time. Then he saw it. He hadn't understood what he was looking at before, but with the Sharingan picking out and comparing details, and with his full attention, it was clear. That was why it was four kids in that other report.

Plans for his family included predicted children, infant survival rates, and gender ratio plots. _This _page also had several _empty boxes_ next to his name, connected the same way as Hinata's. He didn't have any (loyal or legally) living brothers. It was him they indicated, but what did those boxes mean? Flipping though the summarized paragraphs and into the detailed analysis he saw it, clear as day.

That son of a bitch Hiashi had plans to marry him off all right – with three other possible wives. The thing is, he didn't list them here as _exclusive_ plans, now obsolete because of his marriage to Hinata. They were actually _new_ plans, made since that arrangement with Hinata.

Furrowing his brow, he continued reading. He didn't think Hiashi had meant to include copies of this report with his information packet, but it was here now and his blissful ignorance was at an end. These were clearly not contingency plans but a solid blueprint for his future.

Hiashi intended to have Sasuke marry like the warlords of history, like those barbarian tribes from which the damned Hyūga clan originally spawned. None of the others were finalized, like Hinata, but his blood ran cold at some of the names. Essentially all of the kunoichi around his age: Ino, Tenten, Sakura, even...who was Temari? That Sand kunoichi from the Exams? Also some other girls from rich merchant families and the like, those seemingly included as backups. But it was clear what it all meant and, by clan law, it wasn't even illegal.

Because of Hiashi, Sasuke was now scheduled to marry up to _four wives_, including Hinata Hyūga, by the time he was 21.


	13. Chapter 13

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

"It doesn't matter who she is. If he tries anything, I'll kill him," Hinata-chan said calmly to herself. Three inches of wooden post disappeared in a flash of light beneath the single palm strike. "They'll never find a body. I know the correct chemicals and hiding locations," she concluded.

"No, too easy," she reconsidered, a grin creeping across her face. Three holes precisely two inches deep appeared next to the other, larger divot from a sudden flurry of stiff finger strikes, "If he even thinks about it, I'll chop them off and use them as fertilizer for my garden."

Kiba-kun was hiding behind Shino-kun, who was hiding behind another wooden pillar, a long way from their newly...intense teammate. Kurenai was standing next to them, looking at the dark-haired girl with worry on her face. Shino-kun was using the "don't move and she can't see you" stealth technique and didn't move or say anything.

"S-sensei, w-what's wrong with Hinata-chan?" Kiba-kun asked in a shaky voice. Akamaru whined from on top of his head, not looking away from the chips of wood flying off the distant, much abused practice post.

She sighed deeply. "It is a family matter, I can't really tell you more. Hinata-chan is a little...frustrated with the situation. You boys should just give her some space. I'm sure it will be worked out soon," she said, unconvincingly.

Kurenai had been worried since Hiashi Hyūga informed her of the strange arrangement Hinata-chan had been involved in. This latest issue, whatever it was, almost certainly directly related to that. Finally deciding that Hinata had blown off enough steam, Kurenai walked half-way to the now fatally-wounded wooden post and called out to the girl. After telling the boys to practice sparing sideways on a tree for a few minutes to keep them busy, she brought Hinata-chan a good ways away from them for a quiet girl-to-girl talk.

Hinata-chan's face was unusually calm – more mask-like than the usually emotional little girl Kurenai knew. She had been someone who wore her every feeling clearly on her face. Now the only sign of her thoughts was the way Hinata-chan was clenching and unclenching her fists at her side – worrying in the usually peaceful, if sometimes excitable, young girl.

"Hinata-chan, what's wrong? What did that training post ever do to you?" Kurenai asked, trying to inject some gentle humor into the tense situation.

"It is Uchiha," Hinata ground out between clenched teeth. "It isn't right."

Kurenai's heart sunk. She'd expected something like this. Nothing about arranged marriages sat well with her. Forcing a trained killing machine into one seemed insane, all moral arguments aside.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry Hinata-chan," she said, guiding the little girl into a hug. Hinata-chan felt like a stone statue for a few seconds, then relaxed and gently returned the hug. "I'm s-sorry, Kurenai-sensei. I-I didn't mean to disturb practice. I'm j-just so _mad_ right now," she said.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here," Kurenai responded, patting her back. Sniffling a bit, Hinata-chan pulled away and looked her in the eyes. She'd been crying again. Kurenai couldn't remember the last time Hinata had come to practice without red eyes and a tense posture – a week at least.

"It is s-sort of private clan business, b-but...I-I think you'll find out soon anyway sensei, because it is, I, I mean," she took a deep breath, then said all in a rush, "he's going to marry three more poor girls."

Kurenai's eyes grew wide and she froze in shock, staring into Hinata-chan's damp eyes. Her mind started working again and she had to consciously keep her hands from crushing Hinata-chan's shoulders, where she still held the slightly trembling little girl.

"I'm s-sorry, sensei. It is just too much! I can...I think, I mean, if it was just me, I could stand it. For my clan, I c-could endure it. Uchiha-san d-doesn't like it either and I s-shouldn't hate him for it because this is m-my father's plan. But, I mean, this isn't _right_!" she protested, obviously furious. Kurenai wasn't sure exactly who she was mad at, but it might be the entire male gender at this point. Kurenai could relate to that.

"Father is g-going to trick them somehow, I'm s-sure!" Hinata continued. "Uchiha-san said there was a _list_ and he showed it to me and, and it was a-all of my classmates, and t-they were p-plotting how t-to get him to, to m-make them-" she covered her face with her hands and stood there, shaking. "A-and Sasuke-san wouldn't h-help me figure out how t-to stop this! I d-don't want them to be f-forced into something like t-this, like...like I was." She was now weeping quietly into her hands.

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan. I will look into this personally," Kurenai said, staring off into the distant woods, warmth entirely absent from her voice. Shaking herself a little, she looked back at the crying girl.

"Take the rest of today off," she said. "Do some chakra meditation exercises in private if you feel up to it. I'll visit you tomorrow with what I've found out. Suzume-chan will take you home now." The Hyūga bodyguard quietly stepped out from behind a nearby tree and waited passively to take Hinata back to the Uchiha compound. Unfortunately for the little girl, that was also the main outpost for the madness currently ruining her young life.

Leaving the boys with instructions to do a few chakra exercise that were least likely to result in them lighting themselves on fire, Kurenai went off to get some answers from the idiot responsible for all this: Hiashi Hyūga.

* * *

Sasuke's eyes could clearly see secrets hidden to normal vision, that much he was sure of. He didn't need to use them to know that Hinata was boiling mad. What he didn't understand was, why that bothered him so much and in such a strange way. The anger in her eyes as she sat across the dining table from him seemed to bore into his soul. Maybe telling her about the strange family planning documents had been a mistake.

And now she was using one of her fingertips to slowly melt a silver fork, without breaking eye contact with him, her face a blank mask. Maybe the worst mistake, he reflected, was testing her element and showing her those training scrolls. It had to be fire, didn't it.

Hinata had been excited three days ago when he'd announced he'd found some chakra paper that was still good in the Uchiha storerooms. After their usual session in the underground training area, both of them back in the real world again, he'd taken out a small sheet of paper from a box with the Uchiha symbol on it. Handing her the paper carefully, he had told her to channel chakra into it. Then he foolishly armed the angry, angry girl with another weapon.

* * *

The small sheet she was holding slowly caught on fire and was eventually reduced to smoldering bits on her hand. She sat there looking at him for answers.

"Not a strong reaction," Sasuke-san said, "but definitely Fire. Weak, though."

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata asked, a little mad at being called weak yet again.

"Your chakra isn't very strongly aligned with your primary affinity. Maybe that's one reason your clan doesn't prefer elemental jutsu," he said dismissively. "It is most likely impossible for you to master very complicated or strong Fire jutsu."

Hinata sagged a little, then asked quietly, "What w-would be the best thing to t-train, Uchiha-san?" Sasuke-san tossed several scrolls to her. She caught them and automatically stowed them in her belt pouches as he explained.

"Fire Release training scrolls. One of the best uses might be for chakra enhanced weapons – adding it to thrown knives or a larger sword or blade of some kind – so that's in there as well. Doesn't require as much external molding as some of the other techniques, so you don't need as much raw elemental chakra to power it."

"B-But I'm not a weapons user," she protested, horrified.

"Hn," Sasuke-san responded, dismissively. "Whatever. Elemental demonstration. Watch," he said, standing up, turning to one side, forming a few quick seals, and placing a hand at his mouth.

Hinata quickly stood and activated her Byakugan. Taking a deep breath, then blowing out, Sasuke-san created a huge spray of fire in front of him, the edges of it licking the far stone wall. Watching the strange flow of chakra into his lungs and then back out his mouth as he molded Fire Element chakra was strange but intriguing. She tried to memorize how it looked.

"T-Thank you, Uchiha-san," she said, bowing to him. "But w-why are you h-helping me with this?"

"Are you stupid?" he asked, turning back to her with a frown. "You still need to master the student side of Endless Garden genjutsu with the Byakugan so we can practice jutsu inside it. Learning elemental manipulation will only help speed up that process and allow me to use more jutsu inside the illusion. I'm not giving up on our training plan just because you have trouble keeping up."

Hinata frowned, but didn't say anything. She wasn't going to be annoyed into another shouting (or punching) match with Sasuke-san right now.

"Because of your elemental affiliation and high level of chakra control," Sasuke continued, "you should be able to start with the Five Candles Fire exercises immediately. I can't help you with them so read the scrolls carefully. Despite being an Uchiha clan specialty, I actually have a primary Lightning affinity so I've never done the Fire exercises."

"Y-you didn't learn this way?" Hinata asked confused, clutching her hands to her chest.

"I didn't need these exercises as I was working on a single, clan specific jutsu that relied on power more than elemental conversion," he answered.

"This training is what chūnin do to master high level techniques. When I was younger, I had to work on the Great Fireball jutsu, a C-ranked Fire Release, for months before being able to use it at a basic level. It should take a few days or even less for skilled Fire Element user to learn a similar jutsu to that level. Once you have enough skill, you should be able to learn Fire jutsu much faster and even modify them to some extent for your own use." After bowing again, Hinata turned to leave. Sasuke-san interrupted.

"A moment, Hinata-san," he said nervously. She paused, confused by the familiarity, and wondered why his mood had suddenly changed.

"Your father sent me some Uchiha clan documents," he continued. Hinata didn't understand why this was important, but decided to politely listen.

"These were records on clan matters, including copies of our...betrothal agreement," he explained, wincing a little. Hinata's face instantly became a stone mask.

"I am afraid that bastard Hiashi screwed up, though – the old fool accidentally included some internal Hyūga planning documents. On the other marriage contracts he was planning on making for me." Sasuke wasn't looking at her, instead staring off to one side at the scorch marks on the stone walls.

"...what?" Hinata eventually asked, flatly. Sighing deeply, Sasuke tossed a scroll at her which she deftly caught.

"This is a copy of the planned family tree and prospective...wives list Hiashi had created," he said. "Note the _four_ spots for my wives, one filled with your name. He was originally planning on your sister Hanabi marrying me instead, but something political changed that. You might be aware of the details."

At the name of her sister, Hinata's face was no longer blank but full of fury. "How...how dare he!" she hissed angrily.

"Torturing me like this is bad enough," at that Sasuke flinched again, noticing she was once again not stuttering, "but that this was originally planned for my poor little sister? That is _vile_. And all those other poor girls, will they be forced into this too?" she demanded of him.

"I...don't know," Sasuke-san replied slowly, "but it appears Hiashi will be arranging marriages with other, smaller clans, leaving your family as the primary power joined to the Uchiha clan. Many of those on the list are girls who were in our class year at the Academy or the one above us. The others appear to be from rich, minor noble Fire Country families and rich merchant families." He paused after hearing Hinata-san growl, her face locked in a scowl – a frightening look on the quiet young girl.

"Our...our classmates? I...I will not...this isn't-," Hinata took a deep breath. "What are we going to do, Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke-san was now staring at the floor. "I'm not doing anything, Hyūga. I can't stop this. I don't have the political power to do anything. But they get the same deal as you. I won't have a crazed mob of kunoichi trying to murder me in my sleep. So, if they get caught up in this like you did, they get the same way out when I'm legal head of the clan."

Setting her jaw, Hinata nodded in thanks, but was still tense and angry. "Thank you again, Uchiha-san, but t-this isn't good enough. Ruining y-years of these girls' lives because of my clan's actions is unacceptable. We n-need to find another solution."

"Your father is the one arranging these marriages, Hyūga," he replied, voice full of scorn. "Until I am old enough to run my clan, I can't challenge his decisions. And as long as he has the backing of the clan council, there is no way to appeal."

"H-How can you be so cruel, Uchiha-san?" she cried out, "We can't let them get pulled into this unfortunate situation. I-I want to help prevent that from happening."

"Then do so," he said shortly. "I won't stop you so long as you don't get in my way."

"If you would only help-" she started, but Sasuke-san was already on his way out of the stone training room, ignoring her and leaving her standing there still trying to argue. Hinata stayed motionless for almost a minute, then sighed. Clutching the scroll, she left the training room with a determined look on her face.

* * *

Hinata was impossibly angry. She'd never been this mad before. Neither her teammates nor her family had ever managed to infuriate her this much. Instead of being angry at them, she was always just sad or hopeful they could get along better in the future.

What was it about this Uchiha that drove her so crazy? Was it the horrible series of arranged marriages? His arrogant attitude? His stupid, stupid face? Kurenai-sensei couldn't help her with this – sensei's latest attempt to talk some sense into her father had been a failure as well. Maybe she could find out who on the list they were planning on setting up with Sasuke-san and warn the girl, sabotaging her father's plans.

Perspiration dripped off of Hinata's forehead as she continued to run, jaw clenched, legs pumping and breathing ragged, her chest drawing heaving gulps of air. Running around the inner wall of the village was part of her new training routine and, though she wasn't as crazy about it as Gai-sensei's team (she didn't make it around more than once per session yet), it was still far beyond what she was used to.

Practicing long-term and efficient use of chakra enhancements was only part of this training – it also involved pure physical conditioning. Weeks of this intense exercise in the real world had left her feeling strangely powerful. Her body was improving and it showed enough for her teammates and sensei to notice. She didn't tire as quickly in her team sparing, felt lighter on her feet, and was a lot faster in sprints.

Despite setbacks, the genjutsu training was also helping her a great deal. Training inside the genjutsu had disadvantages: it couldn't strengthen your body, for one thing. But what it could do was give you more practice with your reflexes. Muscle memory wasn't really in your muscles after all, so training your brain to move better using the extremely accurate model the genjutsu provided of what your current body was like was very useful, especially for deadly combat practice.

No one wanted to spar with someone trying to stab them in the head or burn out their heart. You could die a thousand times in the illusion and keep training but it didn't give you stronger muscles in the real world, hence the new physical regimen. The Endless Garden training was increasing her combat speed by leaps and bounds, though.

Hinata knew she couldn't seem to improve her genjutsu integration as fast as Sasuke-san expected and she understood his training must be suffering because of her. She wasn't sure how she felt about him or their training, and had no idea what his opinion was on either topic. She hadn't asked and he seemed to have had the good sense to leave her alone while she worked though...whatever it was she was feeling. Though she still helped Sasuke-san with their Endless Garden training, she didn't spend any more time around him than what was necessary to be polite.

Nearing the end of her run, as she started back toward the inner city area and the Uchiha compound, she suddenly detected a tiny killing intent and chakra signature off to one side and just ahead of her. Without changing her stride she hung her head slightly, looking at the ground so her hair covered the sides of her eyes as she activated her Byakugan.

There, just ahead around at the corner of the building, hanging onto the wall on the second story, was a human shape and chakra system. It looked familiar and after a couple of more steps she recognized Sasuke-san's pink-haired teammate peeking around the corner at her. Leaving her eyes active, Hinata jogged to a stop well out of reach of her stalker.

"I can see you there, Haruno-san," she said emotionlessly.

Sakura dropped from the building and walked around the corner, facing Hinata down the street. She was wearing a fashionable red sleeveless dress that zipped up the front and tight black shorts under it. Her Leaf headband was pushed up like a hairband, leaving her large forehead framed by her curved pink bangs. Green eyes flashing angrily, she stood with her arms folded, waiting for Hinata.

Hinata started walking slowly toward the other girl, face calm but Byakugan still active. Stopping several paces away, the she slid the heavy field pack off her back (she always ran with it now, on Suzume-san's suggestion) and stood quietly, body relaxed, arms at her sides, waiting for the pink-haired girl's response. Hinata was surprised to find herself a little annoyed at the other girl's intrusion on her privacy – she had no business spying like this.

"Hinata, what's going on?" Sakura demanded, fists clutched at her sides. "I see you with Sasuke-kun all the time and he's at the hospital so often needing to be healed and you're also there! What are you doing to Sasuke-kun?"

Hinata braced herself, determined not to shrink back in the face of the loud and annoying girl's verbal attack. Even if she could put up with her father's quiet scorn and dismissal and Sasuke's sarcastic and cold insults, she certainly wouldn't allow this little kunoichi to push her around.

"I h-have done nothing to him, Haruno-san," she quietly replied, slightly surprised at how steady her voice was. "There are clan issues we are both d-dealing with, which is why we are in each others presence so often. As we w-will be for the foreseeable future."

"A-ano...as for Uchiha-san's injuries," she said, slightly less confidently, "they are from training sessions we have b-both participated in. Some of t-them have become v-very...violent, as we were working on close-range ninjutsu a-and taijutsu, thus necessitating medical t-treatment. This was all legal and within genin t-training guidelines."

Wrapping up one of the longest speeches the quiet Hyūga had ever given to a stranger, the she continued staring impassively into the other girl's wide green eyes, her Byakugan still obviously active as shown by the bulging veins on her temples.

"Was t-that all you needed, Haruno-san?" she asked, gesturing regally, almost dismissively with one hand. Remembering her father's most intimidating moves at this time pleased Hinata greatly and seemed to rock the pink-haired girl back on her heels. She waited silently as a shocked Sakura's mouth worked wordlessly and the girl's hands twitched open and closed. Her own pale hands were now loosely and elegantly clasped in front of her at waist height.

The effect was slightly spoiled by Hinata wearing, instead of multiple layers of finely woven silk dress robes, tight black exercise pants and a plain (if large and structurally impressive) exercise bra with only a black matte chain mesh shirt over it, tucked into the pants. Suzume-san had (as usual) insisted it was correct training clothing. Hinata had begun to have doubts about that but still went along with her bodyguard's selections.

Sakura seemed to suddenly take in the other girl's outfit and the way her arms were mashing her large breasts together and up. The pink-haired girl finally recovered her voice, pointed a shaking hand at the others huge assets and yelled, "W-Wait! Why does your enormous boob have the Uchiha clan symbol on it!?"

Looking down at her own chest, Hinata saw her top indeed had the red and white fan over her left breast. She'd stopped noticing it long ago as it seemed to show up on a multitude of clothing Suzume-san provided for her. If Sakura was reacting this badly to it on her chest, she'd have to make sure the crazy girl never found out about the Uchiha branded panties.

Briefly considering the implications, Hinata finally gave up keeping secret the already very public information, deciding on a simple but complete explanation. She took a deep breath (a challenge a lesser brassiere would have failed) and explained.

"It is provided by my...my fiancé's family tailor and clothing company – for use only by Uchiha family and retainers of course," she said, trying to ignore the growing look of horror from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Y-You! You can't! He wouldn't! WHAT?!" Sakura gibbered, slowly backing away. "Explain, Hyūga cow!" she demanded frantically, finger still pointing at Hinata's boobs.

"T-That isn't a nice thing to call me, Haruno-san," Hinata said, blushing in embarrassment but also annoyed. "My f-father has arranged a, a marriage between Uchiha-san and myself as head of the Hyūga c-clan and regent guardian of the U-Uchiha clan."

Sakura's green eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted dead away, landing hard on her back in the middle of the road in a dusty cloud. Hinata squeaked in surprise, dropping her Byakugan and running forward to help the collapsed girl.

Kneeling and leaning over to check her for injuries, Hinata ran though the basic first aid she'd learned in the Academy. Don't move the patient unless in immediate danger, check for airway obstructions, check for breathing, check for pulse. Running through panicked checklists and moving her hands over Sakura's head and limbs for obvious injuries, she didn't notice Sakura had recovered almost immediately.

"So...huge," she muttered, staring at Hinata's chest inches from her face. Hinata gasped and quickly scooted back. "A-ano, Haruno-san, are you alright?"

"Like...ripe...melons," Sakura continued to mutter under her breath, eyes glassy and staring straight up.

"Uhh...Haruno-san?" Hinata asked, worried about concussions. Struggling to her feet, Sakura still looked confused but seemed more responsive than before.

"I...I don't understand," Sakura said shakily. "I didn't know...when did you start...liking Sasuke-kun?" she asked, her face a picture of misery and confusion.

"I d-don't like Uchiha-san, really," Hinata protested. "He is c-cold and isn't very n-nice to me, but he has been forced into this the same as I have. He, he will train with me so I'll become stronger, so it isn't like I hate him." Hesitating, she decided this wasn't a very polite conversation, so she'd be just a little more rude and ask an impertinent question. "Why do you like Uchiha-san?"

"W-well, he is so mysterious, and...and handsome and strong," Sakura said, blushing deeply, searching for something less embarrassing to say.

"A-anyway," she said, "I'm the perfect girl for him, not some big-breasted muscle-girl like you!" Then Sakura caught herself and suddenly froze, a pained look on her face.

"I mean...I'm sorry about almost punching you at the hospital," Sakura suddenly said, looking down guiltily, "I had to do punishment detail for three nights straight because of that and pay for the damage to the wall. But that isn't the point." Pink hair whipping around her face, she took a stomping step forward and pointed at Hinata's chest again, seeming to have trouble looking away.

"I'm still going to keep fighting! I won't lose in this Battle of Love!" Sakura declared directly to Hinata's tits, which made no immediate reply of their own. Seemingly satisfied with this declaration to her opponent's mammaries, the obviously mentally imbalanced kunoichi then turned and started to stomp away, leaving a bemused Hinata (and her chest) standing alone in the road.

Comparing the two of them as Sakura walked away, Hinata couldn't honestly say the other girl was wrong about her physical evaluation. Hinata knew she had the thick arms and wrists of a taijutsu specialist and bulky, well-defined thighs and calves. And shamefully large breasts, of course. But this was (mostly, and not the breasts of course) because she trained to be a powerful ninja. Sakura looked like a beanpole by comparison, including her chest. A small, quiet, aggressive, and moderately new part of Hinata wondered if Sakura was really serious about being a Leaf kunoichi. Sakura probably even _dieted_.

Hinata knew she needed unpleasantly large quantities of food every day just to keep going – using all that energy, chakra and physical, took a toll on her body. She also knew some of her fellow kunoichi at the Academy had kept to strange thinning diets, mostly because of boys, but Hinata had never really understood that. At home (she meant her old home, she realized with a stab of regret, but also the Uchiha compound) they wouldn't let her even try to miss a meal or skimp on her nutrition. It was worrying that Sasuke-san depended on a teammate who didn't seem to take being a ninja very seriously.

Not sure how to respond to Sakura's sudden and strange disengagement from an even stranger verbal encounter, Hinata was about to just grab her pack and leave when she detected a familiar presence. Instinct and long training triggered her Byakugan before she consciously processed the information. Behind her and above, there, was a chakra signature and shape she recognized.

Sasuke-san silently dropped off a building and landed just behind Hinata, but she didn't turn her head or even react. Taking a few steps forward, he touched her arm briefly, receiving a nod from her in response. Standing next to her as she continued to put her heavy pack back on – strapping it down firmly, Academy correct procedure – Sasuke-san addressed his teammate, surprising the girl who had not yet noticed his arrival.

"Sakura, Naruto has returned and Kakashi-sensei has recovered," Sasuke said, his voice loud in the suddenly still street. "We are to meet them at the Hokage's office immediately." As Sakura gasped and spun around, he paused.

Glancing sideways at Hinata, he added quietly, "Hyūga-san, they did not mention it being a secret meeting." He paused again.

"So, if you wanted to come..." he said, trailing off as he passed her and walked toward his still shocked, pink-haired teammate.

Hinata gulped and quickly shuffled her backpack off again, pulling a light jacket out of it to cover up her slightly immodest running top, strapping an equipment belt on, and grabbing her tantō and its sheath ties.

Leaving her heavy backpack with Suzume-san, who had appeared out of the shadows as if on command, she ran off after Sasuke-san and Sakura to finally see Naruto-kun again after more than a month.

Racing along the streets behind them, she tied the large knife to her left arm as the back of her unzipped gray jacket flapped, waving the Uchiha symbol in the breeze.


	14. Chapter 14

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

It was worse than Sasuke had expected. Sakura and Naruto were yelling at each other, of course – he couldn't tell about what or even if they were listening to what the other was saying or just barreling through with their own shrieks as fast as possible. The little punk looked fine, better than fine actually – he had a healthy glow, a tan, and a huge smile on his face.

Not that he ever looked sick or really tired or anything. He sometimes seemed worn out or too bored to move or something, but any physically draining activity merely left him in a temporary state that went away almost visibly fast. Sasuke also couldn't remember the last time the orange turd even had the sniffles, let alone a sprain or a broken bone. That was one of the reasons Sasuke always went all-out on him during spars – the smiling idiot absorbed damage like a sponge and seemed to _like_ the attention of a fist in his face.

Kakashi was there and a little weak on his feet – over a month in a coma was apparently enough to slow down even the lazy elite jōnin. Not exactly an important weakness, though Sasuke had some dark suspicions about what had done that to him as he filed the information away. He would put off asking his sensei about whether or not a certain traitorous shit stain of a brother of his and his spinning eyes were responsible. He didn't actually know if his sensei would even answer truthfully. Didn't matter – his new plan to grow stronger was working. Everything else was a distraction, including the impending fleet of annoying girls in his life.

Leaning against the wall outside the Hokage's office, Sasuke kept a watch on Hinata out of the corner of his eye. The quiet young girl was almost grinning as she looked at Naruto; even though she hadn't yet even said a word to him or vice versa, it was clear she was happy to see him. Just knowing he was okay seemed enough for her.

Looking back at the pair of idiots, blond and pink, he saw Sakura was back to looking at him and then pretending she wasn't when he looked directly at her. Annoying. Naruto was starting to wander over to him, looking around like he had never seen the office waiting room before. Looking straight at Sasuke now, Naruto cracked a huge, shit-eating grin.

"Hey Sasuke! What's up, you smug bastard?"

"Hn," he replied, barely keeping a grin off his face and fearing he hadn't kept the smile from his eyes.

"Hinata-chan! Great to see you again!" he almost yelled, causing the dark-haired girl at his side to rock back a little and start looking at her feet. She was instantly blushing deeply and started pressing her index fingers together in front of her gray jacket nervously.

"H-hello, Naruto-kun," she said at a whisper, "it i-is g-good t-t-o s-see, t-to s-see you are b-back, back s-safe." Sasuke had no idea if Naruto even heard her, let alone cared what she had said.

Storming ahead, the blond continued babbling, "Guys, my trip was SO. AWESOME! We went all over Fire Country and I learned some powerful new moves and an ultra-powerful new jutsu and I had to learn it fast or I'd lose and we met the two other Sannin and fought a giant snake and there was this ninja traitor and I was like, no! I will fight you!" Sasuke's eyes were starting to glaze over as the idiot's babble continued. It seemed to go on forever.

"And then I hit him and the other guys ran away and we won the fight!" Naruto finished up, flinging his hand in the air in what Sasuke could only assume was the winning blow. The torrent of nonsense had ended, leaving Hinata wide-eyed and sort of wobbling back and forth, face like a tomato, and one of Sasuke's eyebrow twitching convulsively.

Sakura was ignoring it all (clever girl) and trying to talk to Kakashi (coolly distant and reading his book as usual) about something but was very obviously keeping an eye on him, occasionally sparing a strange look he didn't understand for the pale-eyed girl standing beside him. Did she know something about their situation? Didn't matter, really, but it could be annoying if she did. More annoying. Whatever.

"Hn," he said, summing up his complicated feelings of disdain for Naruto's disjointed narrative structure and his storytelling skills in general. Especially the special effect henges he'd tried out (Kakashi stopped him when he started trying to imitate foreign ninjas outside the Hokage's office, the idiot) and the sound effects he had continued to use throughout the story.

"T-that is a-amazing, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said breathily beside him, staring at the orange idiot. Sasuke rolled his eyes, not that anyone noticed or cared. Naruto chuckled at her almost inaudible praise. "Thanks Hinata-chan!" he yelled almost directly into Sasuke's face.

"Tsunade-sama will see you and your team now," the ANBU guard at the office door told Kakashi. Sasuke practically leapt off the wall (but was too cool to actually do so), slouching quickly to Kakashi's side and moving toward the large double-doors. At the last moment, he remembered that Suzume had left Hinata with him after leaving to carry her backpack to the Uchiha mansion. He wasn't sure if the girl's bodyguard had returned or not. Hinata might need an escort home. Troublesome. He turned back to see if she'd already left.

Still standing in the waiting room, the young Hyūga seemed a little nervous to be this close to the Hokage's office. Maybe it was the casual exercise clothing she was wearing. She'd rushed over after hearing Naruto was back, so she obviously hadn't had a chance to change. But she also hadn't left yet, even after getting a chance to talk to Naruto. Sasuke wasn't sure why. Maybe she was still waiting for her bodyguard.

Meeting his eyes (strange that she wasn't staring at the ground) she bowed her head ever so slightly to him then sat down in one of the waiting room chairs, patiently folding her hands in her lap. When she glanced up at him again, gaze firm and not submissive as he had expected, he blinked, then nodded in return and followed the rest of his team through the large double-doors.

* * *

Blah blah blah, safety of the village, blah blah blah, Spirit of Fire. Ninjas like them were critical to the future of the village, they would be working hard because of the losses suffered during the sneak attack by Orochimaru and Sand, and (damn it!) Kakashi would be busy on missions most of the time so they'd be training on their own between D-rank missions assigned by the central office.

The woman wasn't sitting behind the big desk yet, but was instead sprawled out on one of the couches the Third had kept around for more informal meetings. His team was standing at a relaxed attention in front of her, listening (or half-listening, in Sasuke's case) to the usual ninja pep talk. The children were the hope for tomorrow, the village was building a bridge to the future, blah blah blah-

"Wait a sec," Sasuke suddenly thought, pulled from his disinterested haze, "did _she _just say 'blah blah blah?'"

Anyway, this Tsunade woman was going to be the next Hokage, it seemed, and Naruto had gone out to find her with Jiraiya. So that was their secret mission. Sorta cool but mostly lame. Sasuke was sure the Sannin Jiraiya had done all the work.

Tsunade seemed okay in a creepy-aunt sort of way and as one of the Sannin must be insanely powerful, but Sasuke just couldn't feel comfortable around her. She looked at people strangely – sort of like the Third had, gaze piercing their souls but still smiling and grandfatherly and everything. Hers was less indulgent than the old man's had been. Kakashi got exasperated looks, Sakura an annoyed glare, and Naruto got something uncomfortably like Itachi had looked at Sasuke, back before- never mind. When the young-seeming woman (who must have been at least 60) looked at him, Sasuke felt a cold, calculating glare.

"What does she have against me?" he wondered silently to himself. Didn't really matter, he decided. The meeting was starting to wrap up (the next Hokage's time was valuable, after all) and he had been ready to leave five minutes ago. As they were dismissed and started to walk out, she spoke up suddenly. "Uchiha, stay a moment. You can catch up with your team in a minute."

Cautious of the powerful woman's mood, he merely politely turned around and waited as the rest of his teammates and his sensei filed out the door. After it closed behind them, the legendary Sannin just stared at him for a minute, then turned and spoke to someone invisible in a dark corner of the room.

"Well, are you happy, you old pervert? Orphaned, pretty-boy clan heir with a budding new harem – sounds like he practically just wrote your next book for you."

Stepping out of the shadows was the same strangely-dressed shinobi Sasuke had first seen saving his and Naruto's asses from his brother and another probably-S-ranked nukenin – Jiraiya of the Sannin. Great, now all Sasuke had to do was have the snake Sannin show up and try to kidnap him and he'd have the full set in the room. The old man was grinning and scribbling rapidly in a small notebook, ignoring Tsunade's biting comments in a similar way to how Sasuke had been. Well, Sasuke wasn't leering like a pervert, but still, they both knew to ignore the old bat.

"Well kid," she said, turning back to him and stretching her arms across the couch (pulling open her loose blouse and exposing even more of her huge cleavage in the process – his recent experiences and new discipline helped him not stare), "I'm aware of the mess young Hiashi has made of everything, especially this latest thing with the harem or whatever.

"Still not sure if that egomaniac intentionally leaked it to you or not. But the fact that you're not grinning from ear to ear about it means I won't have to arrange for something unpleasant to happen to you. Technically, none of the girls Hiashi is trying to rope into this are being forced into anything." Clenching one fist until her knuckles loudly popped, she continued to stare at him impassively.

"However, personally and unofficially, I am not happy with the situation at all. His own daughter, even..." she drifted off into some unpleasant internal musings, then speared him with a sharp look. "If I find out you have taken advantage of or mistreated any of these poor girls I will, _personally __and __unofficially_, remove your manhood. That's the promise of a lifetime, brat." Sasuke was proud that he didn't even flinch. Relaxing again, she leaned back into the couch. The white-haired Sannin was watching all this quietly with arms folded, no longer smiling.

"The Uchiha have been a powerful, politically important clan in Konoha stretching back to the founding of this village, as has my own, now virtually dead clan, the Senju," she said, folding her arms in front of her and glaring at Sasuke.

"If the Uchiha clan can truly be brought back from the dead and restored, I will be honor bound both as Hokage and as the last heir of one of the Foundering clans to support such an effort. This is what the clan council and Hiashi are counting on. That does not mean I like the idea of enslaving some poor young women in a planned breeding program. Among nobles and powerful clans, words such as 'love' and 'equality' might be irrelevant in situations where marriages are made for political power, but I will not have citizens of Konoha abused in any way." Glaring at him, she obviously expected a response.

"I do not wish a weakling for a wife," Sasuke scoffed, folding his arms, "let alone four of them. I will have a strong and willing kunoichi at my side to restore my clan, not a gaggle of doormats and broodmares. The Hyūga's plotting only delays my own plans. I have already told Hinata that she and any other weak, unwilling women caught up in this will be ignored until I am of age to take over the clan. Then, I will simply divorce them all in civilian court."

Eyes narrowing, most likely at the implied insult to theoretical women everywhere, Tsunade nevertheless seemed at least slightly pleased with the answer. "You are a young idiot but at least you don't appear to be a hopeless pervert," she said, glancing over at Jiraiya who was rolling his eyes at her. "I can't stop the marriages from occurring but your plan seems sound, assuming there are no children involved. Then it gets messy. Keep it in your pants and don't let that happen or I won't jump in to save you, understand?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted in reply.

"Dismissed," she said, ignoring his disrespectful response and turning back to the paperwork on her table.

* * *

After Sasuke had left, Jiraiya finally spoke up. "This could work, you know. Virtually any teenage boy surrounded by beautiful, fit young kunoichi would be inclined to ensure it stayed that way. There is darkness in him still, but it isn't as bad as I was expecting after more than two months with Orochimaru's cursed mark. So far, he's doing even better than Anko-chan was at this point. Maybe he's just naturally a bit of an asshole. Kami knows his father was."

Tsunade snorted, then sighed deeply, causing her chest to do interesting things. Jiraiya surreptitiously watched out of the corner of his eye. "You're right. I just don't like it," she said. "Hiashi could force the issue with Hinata-chan because of their twisted clan privileges and the hold those give him over her, but I can't see any of the other clans agreeing to something their daughters wouldn't like. There are also some hints of political intrigue within the Hyūga relating to this, something regarding the succession, but it isn't technically any of my business. Additional forced marriages are. But given how many eager young Uchiha fangirls there are out there, that might not be a problem at all."

"His teammate, the bubblegum girl?" Jiraiya asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, she's on the list too. He has plenty of fangirls, her and many, many others," she huffed. "I've seen the security and psychological intel reports. Virtually his entire class's female population, as well as a couple of years above and below his. And most of the civilian girls. And some of the other young women in Konoha, civilian and ninja. And some of the older housewives, widows, and at least one jōnin Leaf kunoichi. And possibly visiting foreign noblewomen, enemy kunoichi, and a secret, half-demon succubus disguised as a ramen stand attendant, for all I know!"

Rolling her eyes, she started drumming her neat, short-trimmed nails on the arm of the couch. "I can see it, you know, even with my limited, non-perverted powers of perception." Jiraiya smirked at her again, she continued, "He oozes this...mysterious, dark charisma. Pretty as a young male model, too. And then he opens his mouth and pisses me off."

Pondering a few more moments, she asked, "Do you think he'll take advantage of Hinata? From what her sensei said, she's kind of a meek and submissive little thing."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Jiraiya said, "her sensei and a Hyūga bodyguard will be looking out for her and anyway, he seems pretty cold. Didn't take a peek at your boobs once, even when you practically took them out and waved them at him while looking the other way."

"Ha, noticed that did you? People forget I'm a highly trained _kunoichi_ sometimes, just because I loudly say how much I hate the perverted stuff. Never any harm in letting them have a look for the purposes of completing a mission. If I constantly said how much I hated swords but had a huge one slung bare over one shoulder all the time, what would be the obvious conclusion? Bah, young ninja these days never look underneath the underneath anymore."

"You still aren't allowed to look underneath anything though, you pervert," she added without any heat, almost as an afterthought. She sat quietly for a moment, thinking.

"Maybe he's not into women?" she suggested.

"Nah, I was watching the kids while they were in the waiting room," Jiraiya said immediately. "He looked at his pink-haired, fashion queen teammate more than even Naruto did and he kept checking on how the little Hyūga who was following him around like a puppy was doing, too. I've seen all kinds and I'd bet big money on him being at least mostly straight. He'll end up being at most a 1 on the scale, more likely a 0."

"No bet," she said immediately. "Knowing my luck, he'd turn out to actually secretly be a girl AND a lesbian, and I'd lose all my money on a technically."

"Ha. Hmm. Maybe he just isn't a boob man," he suggested, leering at her. "Or maybe you're just losing it, princess." Guffawing loudly as she threw something sharp at him, he simply dodged to one side, watching as she went back to her paperwork.

"If burying him in willing young pussy keeps him from defecting to Orochimaru, I'll personally pimp them to him," she said seriously, "but most of these girls are too inexperienced to know what they're doing. If he steps over the line with them, I'll cut it off. And that's a promise." Jiraiya decided that was his cue to leave and quietly disappeared from the Hokage's office without a sound or a trace.

* * *

Leaving the Hokage's office and seeing the meek little Hyūga waiting for Sasuke-kun to return like a dutiful goddamn wife, Sakura finally decided to declare Total Love War. The girls at the Academy – at least the vast majority of them who crushed on Sasuke-kun – had put into place a sort of informally declared Love Détente in regards to the raven-haired boy after her disastrous second year. The Noodle Incident alone had left an entire generation of Academy kunoichi mentally scarred, so no one wanted a repeat of the depths to which they'd fallen during that long, dark spring.

The rules were straight forward: no actions against other females and in return, no girl would cross certain boundaries in trying to win the boy's affections. No forcing him into kisses, no involving parents, and finally, no ninja tricks (not that they'd work against him – he was too good for a simple ambush to catch him and allow someone to tie him up and drag him into an abandoned classroom and...err, yeah).

Given that getting married was a bit more serious than stealing a kiss and that her father was also involved, cute little Hinata had technically broken at least two of the rules that had kept the peace. Thus, Sakura had a Total Love War casus belli – a moral justification for her war.

The first obstacle was the worst: how would Sakura get around Sasuke-kun essentially already being spoken for? She couldn't imagine convincing the powerful head of the Hyūga clan to simply cancel the engagement. Simply murdering a little girl in cold blood didn't even make it past the first morality filter she had in place around Inner Sakura. Beating her unconscious in front of Sasuke ("Hell Yes!" Inner Sakura said), sure, but killing wasn't even on her radar.

A part of her thought she was being unfair to the girl. She hadn't been a Sasuke-kun fan during school and this appeared to be a politically motivated arranged marriage, not a schoolgirl crush gone wrong. Sakura realized she needed an angle. As her Sasuke-kun had said, she was smart. There had to be something she was missing. Maybe she could just ask the girl for information? Walking over to Hinata and sitting down across from her, she considered a complicated approach, possible contingency plans, and then discarded the lot.

"Umm, Hinata, why _are _you marrying Sasuke?" Sakura asked the quiet girl. "You said you don't even like him. Do you really want to be married to him? Can't you just ask your father to dissolve the...arrangement?" She saw Hinata looking around nervously, quickly seeing that Sasuke was still in the inner office, Kakashi was engrossed in his porn novel, and Naruto...was vibrating violently while talking non-stop to the annoyed receptionist. Hinata seemed to take this as private enough and stumbled into a quiet and stuttering answer.

"Ahh, umm, Haruno-san, it isn't r-really...he wouldn't do that. My f-father arranged this marriage so, so I had n-no choice. I would like to g-get out of it as s-soon as possible but that could take several years, possibly not until I am 21." Hinata looked very sad and seemed to suddenly make a decision to confide in her, spilling out more in a rush.

"B-but that isn't the worst p-part, Haruno-san: my f-father is also p-planning on arranging t-three more m-marriages to Uchiha-san." The dark-haired girl's face fell and she looked crushed by sadness. "I d-don't want a-any other girls to have to s-suffer through this j-just because of my family, so I-I am t-trying to find a way to s-stop it. So f-far, I have not had m-much luck. M-maybe you can help me with this, Haruno-san? Y-you are his teammate, after all." Hinata was looking at her hopefully now, twisting her fingers together.

Sakura had stopped paying attention almost half a minute ago when Hinata had mentioned _three more marriages_. She still had a chance! But how to make herself an attractive choice to the most powerful ninja clan in the village? Hinata didn't seem to like the idea, so maybe she could pretend to be helping prevent the marriages while gathering information. The simple girl might not realize her plot to have Sasuke-kun for her own and could spill vital information which could make Sasuke-kun hers forever! ("Damn right!" Inner Sakura said). And, in the mean time, she could cull the herd of skanky challengers to her Ultimate Love Plan by helping poor, innocent Hinata.

"I...see. Hinata-chan, what do you think your father is looking for in these new potential brides?" Sakura asked. "Maybe you could, I don't know, find out who is next and warn them away somehow? Keep their families from accepting such an offer?" Internally, she was thinking how she could get her father and mother to agree to this. Working through her mother first would be the best approach – subtly let mom know it was a dream of hers to marry Sasuke-kun, then the puppy-dog eyes for her father, along with financial information about how well-off the Uchiha were (so he could easily support her). Done deal.

"Ahh, I-I don't know, Haruno-san. T-there is a list. Some on it a-are strong kunoichi, many from c-clans, and also rich and p-politically connected civilians," Hinata said hesitantly. She seemed really nervous to be talking to Sakura about this for some reason.

"Rats!" Sakura thought, "That could be a problem."

Most of the best girls at the Academy were clan kunoichi, and they were really strong and had special techniques, skills like Ino's mind jutsu. Sakura normally wouldn't stand out compared to them without some serious skills, but she had the advantage of having a lazy yet powerful sensei and she was already on Sasuke-kun's team. Maybe Sasuke-kun would even train with her and help her become stronger? That might help get the attention of the Hyūga. Passing the Chūnin Exam would really have helped, too bad about that. Maybe they could get into the next one? She was sure she'd do better next time.

"Have to talk to Kakashi-sensei about that," she noted to herself.

"Okay, I see," Sakura said to the pale-eyed girl, reaching out and carefully touching her hands reassuringly. "Thank you for letting me know about this, Hinata-chan. I'm...I'm sorry about what I said before. I was worried about Sasuke-kun and I said some mean things. I'm sure we can find out what is going on and stop these marriages."

"N-no, do n-not worry about it, Haruno-san!" Hinata said earnestly. "I-I understand. Thank you f-for helping out with this. I'll t-try to contact you when I know more. You m-must really care f-for your teammates," Hinata said with a quiet smile. Sakura nodded silently and moved away to lean against a wall and plot. Sasuke-kun would be hers and not some meek, ungrateful, big-boobed muscle-girl's!

Just then, the large doors opened and Sasuke-kun finally returned from his private meeting with Tsunade-sama. Walking straight over to the blond idiot, he said, "Fight me."


	15. Chapter 15

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**SPECIAL TRIGGER WARNING**

_Non-consensual sexual scene ahead._

I usually don't do these but part of this chapter is a little over the top. Skip past the italic text at the start to the next break if it is a problem for you. All is explained after that break. This scene is story relevant but not critical.

Most "trigger" warnings make me smirk and laugh (welcome to the Internet), but for this kind of thing I'll make an exception. Rated M for many reasons and this is another.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

_Sakura__ came to with half her face covered in flower petals. __Her head __was slumped sideways __and she was bound __to the tree behind her with dozens of wraps of ninja wire. Her entire body was restrained, leaving only her legs and head free, __but she had a gag stuffed in her mouth and tied firmly in place__._

_Looking around, she saw she was at the edge of a small clearing, surrounded on all sides by large cherry trees. __The entire clearing was covered in the petals, as was her clothing. They dropped off her hair and face and collected around her feet as she briefly struggled, soon giving up and staring __skyward,__ into the light flickering in the branches._

_A short, breathy laugh tickled her ear. "Sakura-chan, I finally found you." Sasuke-kun slowly walked around the tree she was tied to and into sight. He smirked at her. "Didn't exactly win that last fight, eh? Good thing I found you in time." Trying to shout a warning through her gag, she whipped her head around, suddenly fearful. She couldn't remember how she got here or if there were any enemy ninja still around._

"_No no, don't worry Sakura-chan," Sasuke-kun said quietly, leaning forward to whisper into her ear again. She froze as his hair brushed against her cheek then squeaked in confusion when he failed to start removing her gag and bindings. Instead, he leaned forward more, placing his hand on the other side of her head while continuing to whisper into her ear. "Once I found them, they didn't stand a chance. Not against these eyes."_

_He pulled back briefly, then pressed his forehead into hers, the cold metal of the Leaf symbol inscribed plate driving her head firmly back into the tree. She gasped, staring into his eyes, three tomoe spinning in each. She felt a sudden pressure behind her eyes._

"_I killed them all for hurting you. And now, Sakura-chan, I will claim my reward."_

_She tried to shout out, to struggle, but suddenly found she couldn't move a muscle from her neck down. The gag was still firmly in place over her mouth and no words made it out, just wild sounds. Sasuke-kun slowly pulled out a kunai, placing his other hand flat on her collarbone, just over the topmost coil of wire. She gasped through the gag at his touch on her bare skin._

"_Since you can't move, I'll just loosen...this," he said, slowing dragging the kunai down the tree next to her to cut the loops of restraining wire. As he cut with one hand, he was moving his other downward, unzipping her top as he went. Once the wire around her upper chest was gone, he stabbed the knife into the tree suddenly. She tried to shrink back, but was only able to barely move her head. She shook her head in a panic as he moved both hands to her shoulders, brushing back the top of her dress._

_Ignoring her reaction, he dragged his hands down her shoulders and over and down her arms, baring her chest in the process. Her bright red bra stood out on her pale chest as the dress was pulled open. She let out a brief whine that was interrupted when his eyes locked with hers again, Sharingan still spinning. Out of the edge of her vision, she saw his left hand blur towards the knife embedded in the tree at her side. A slight breeze, a tearing sound, and the front of her bra came apart. Seeing the knife was now stuck into the tree by her head, she started whimpering. She had barely seen his hands move. He hadn't even nicked her skin._

"_There," he whispered, face inches from hers, "isn't that better?" She took a deep, shuttering breath as his hands ran slowly up her sides, teasing the now accessible undersides of her breasts, his thumbs running just beneath the loosely draped cloth cups still barely covering them. Reaching up behind her head, he pulled on the gag, slowly removing it._

"_Doesn't really matter if you yell, Sakura-chan. We are all alone out here now. No one will hear you. Might annoy me, though," Sasuke-kun said, dropping the wadded up cloth gag onto the ground. He slowly wrapped his hand around her throat, barely squeezing. "And you wouldn't want to annoy me, would you Sakura-chan?" She violently shook her head no, trying to edge back into the tree trunk but only succeeding in knocking her head against it again sharply._

"_Good, good," he said, dark tomoe in his red eyes spinning as he stared into her green ones. Another sudden motion with the kunai, once again in his hand, and she was entirely free of the ninja wire. Her damaged bra fell to the ground, fully exposing her small breasts – her half-removed dress did nothing to cover her chest anymore._

_She still couldn't move as her body started to slump, only to meet his leg where his knee was now thrust into the tree. She took another shuddering gasp as her crotch impacted hard with his thigh. Sasuke was still holding her neck firmly against the tree, keeping her from falling over, and his leg was keeping her from simply hanging from his hand and choking. Her arms, still caught in the dress, weren't responding and her legs flopped loose and useless._

"_Look, I've freed you now. Aren't you glad?" Sasuke-kun said, smirking. She could only gasp and let out a muted whimper, feeling his long fingers stroking the back of her neck. He reached way up above her head and slammed the kunai to its hilt, shaking the entire tree. "I asked, aren't you glad, Sakura-chan?"_

"_Y-yes, S-Sasuke-kun. P-please, let m-me g-go now." she whimpered quietly. His fingers suddenly tightened on her neck._

"_Ah, I can't do that Sakura-chan, if that is really your name," he said. His eyes started spinning faster as he grabbed her left wrist with his free hand. Pinning it above her head, he leaned into her, crushing her small breasts against his shirt. She let out a chocked gasp as her nipples were rubbed on the rough fabric._

"_You might be a disguised spy or a transformation. Hard to tell," he whispered, his lips brushing her earlobe. "Maybe you are even the real Sakura, but you might still be a turncoat who led us into that ambush. You were separated from the rest of the team during the fight, so I'll need to...interrogate you. Find out who you really are. Make sure you are...loyal to the village." His breath tickled her ears and she tried to squirm out of his grasp, to release the pressure on her increasingly warm crotch, but only ended up thrashing her head around a bit. She could feel her nipples start to harden against his firm chest._

_Sasuke-kun suddenly let go of her neck and grabbed her other wrist, yanking it above her head. He wrapped both her wrists in ninja wire, tying her fingers together so she couldn't form seals, then secured the wire to the kunai still stuck in the tree. Stepping back, he let her hang by her arms, her feet dragging on the ground. She cried out in pain as all her weight ended up on her arms and shoulders, feeling like they were going to be pulled out of their sockets._

"_Sorry about that, Sakura-chan. Now that you are secure, we can release that genjutsu." He grabbed her chin and yanked her head up, ignoring her continued shouts of pain. Staring into her eyes, Sasuke-kun's tomoe started spinning faster and faster. A horrible pressure in her head made her gasp in agony again, her body twisting and her feet scrabbling on the ground. She then realized her body was responding again, her legs now holding her up and relieving the pain on her arms._

_Panting, still sore from recent abuse, she tried to reason with her teammate. "It's really me! I'd never betray you! Sasuke-kun, please don't do this!" she cried out hoarsely. Ignoring her pleas, he unzipped her dress the rest of the way, leaving it flapping open and exposing her pale stomach. Her entire front was now bared, leaving her with only a pair of white spandex shorts and her ninja sandals. Like most experienced kunoichi, she wasn't wearing panties._

_Trying to escape by twisting her body, she cried out as he firmly grasped her shorts with both hands, wrenching her body back around to face him. In one impossibly fast motion, he dragged them off her hips, over her legs, and past her feet, tossing them behind him into the fallen pink petals. Now almost completely bare, with just her red dress hanging off her arms, she started shouting in a panic. "Nonono, Sasuke-kun please, not like this!"_

_A kunai was suddenly under her chin. "Only two choices here, Sakura-chan: prove you are my loyal teammate or die. We can't afford to drag a prisoner all the way back to Fire Country. Do you understand?" Whimpering softly, she nodded her head with a jerk. The kunai disappeared._

"_Good," he said, brushing her shoulder-length hair back behind her ear. Cupping her cheek and rubbing her trembling lips with his thumb, he considered the naked and quivering girl. "You know, Naruto thinks you can truly know a person by fighting them with all your heart. I have...another technique."_

_His other hand brushed against her collarbone, then drifted slowly downward, stroking and squeezing. Sakura's eyes flew wide open and she bit off a feeble shout. Her panicked gasping and whimpering ended in a long moan as his hand slid down her stomach and continued lower, cupping and pressing._

_Growing louder by the second, she groaned and panted, unconsciously rubbing her face against his hand. Sasuke silenced her with his lips, firmly pressing her head back into the rough bark of the tree, his hand moving from her chin to her chest. His long, strong fingers begun playing with her relentlessly, kneading and pressing and pinching without mercy._

_Surrendering at last, she returned the kiss, slipping her tongue quickly into his mouth. Her hips started moving, assisting his intruding hand as it moved low and deep against and into her. As she undulated faster, her body locked to his hands and mouth, both her legs started weakening and her pleasure grew. Her left thigh started jerking uncontrollably._

_Collapsing against him when her knees suddenly gave out, she was left twitching slightly, pinned against the tree by his hands on her most sensitive parts. Regaining her breath gasp by heaving gasp, she ached for him to continue but was unable to move against him while supported this way._

_Sakura opened her eyes, just in time to see Sasuke-kun remove both his hands from her body at the same time, backing away from her and dropping all her weight onto her shaky legs. Her head and body slumped forward, hanging off the tree by her arms again, still locked high up on the tree behind her. "Nooo, I need moooore Sasuke-kuuun," she whined in breathy protest, shivering at the loss of contact with her raven-haired lover's hands. _

_She heard the rustle of fabric and looked up to see Sasuke's pants drop into the cherry petals on the forest floor._

"_Ohh! Yessss Sasuke-kun. Now!" she moaned in anticipation, hitching one leg over his hips as he moved her into position._

* * *

Sakura lay naked and panting, face down across her desk. Her left hand held the side of the desk in a death grip and her right was trapped against the cold wood under her chest. Her legs were still spread wide as she slumped diagonally against the corner of the cherry wood topped furniture with her hips now resting just on top. The fantasy scene in her mind's eye had shattered as her second and largest orgasm yet rocked her body.

"Nothing like almost getting killed to improve your masturbation session," she thought vaguely a while later, mind finally functioning again. "Only thing that would make it better would be Sasuke-kun instead of the corner of my desk." Somehow still managing to blush at the thought, she got control of her breathing again, pressing her sweating face into the cool wood surface.

Seeing her teammates and friends nearly get killed and getting a chunk taken out of her really shouldn't have gotten her so hot, but it had, leaving her barely able to contain herself while her pathetically light injuries were worked on and a bunch of people talked to her at the hospital. She'd rushed all the way home after, mind and body on fire. There wasn't anything half as sexy as a life and death fight. Maybe a life and death fight along side Sasuke-kun. Mmm...good thing he was okay. She had plans for that body, later.

Her boys were still in the hospital but at least they weren't in any danger now. They were also keeping Hinata overnight, but mostly because she'd have broken into the hospital to stay with Naruto if they hadn't – or maybe she'd have done it for Sasuke-kun as well. Sakura was less and less convinced by the little Hyūga's protests of disinterest in her raven-haired teammate.

Sakura would have been more worried about feeling so horny after all the death and destruction if she hadn't had some brief counseling from that Yamanaka mind healer Ino had set her up with a few hours ago. The young woman had been a bit of a pervert, asking all kinds of rude questions, but had totally understood where Sakura was coming from in the end. Just talking to her had helped and some of the relaxation and visualization stuff she'd done (which didn't involve Sasuke fantasies, unfortunately) had also left her feeling better. That it had undoubtedly doubled as an after-action mental evaluation for her as an active duty Leaf ninja didn't worry her at all.

Inner Sakura was still her little secret – long practice with Ino, sworn to secrecy after that incident at the prelims, had helped there. Ino really was a good friend. Hell, there were plenty of spots on Sasuke-kun's "team roster," maybe Sakura could get her oldest friend in on it. Sakura would be top bitch obviously, but her friend could always gather up the scraps she left. Heh, mmm, delicious scraps of Sasuke-kun.

It was a pleasant thought that she could still be friends with Ino and have what she wanted even more: Sasuke-kun. Planning that little secret, A-ranked mission occupied her mind until she finally started getting cold and uncomfortable, laying on the slightly damp and sticky desk. Cleaning everything up and going to take a long, hot shower, she tried to keep her mind on the more pleasant things, like imagining Sasuke-kun joining her in the shower. Anything to erase the horrible memories of that running battle, fought half-way across Fire Country.

It had all started with what should have been a simple spar between her two boys, the knucklehead and the dreamboat. Things gotten a little out of hand after that, sure, but no one thought it would end up with little Hinata captured and held hostage by an enemy force, or the rookie nine having to fight multiple special-jōnin-level ninjas to get her back. They'd all fought bravely, but if it hadn't been for her sounding the alarm when she did, it all would have gone much, much worse. Sure, that strange green-haired girl had made the difference in the end, but that was only because they were so close on the enemy's heels because of her own early warning.

After her little mental evaluation had declared her "sane enough," Hiashi Hyūga, in a private audience at the hospital, had personally thanked Sakura for going above and beyond the call of duty in helping to rescue his eldest daughter. When he'd asked her to name her reward, anything in his power as clan leader to grant, her heart had stopped but not her mouth.

Remembering her earlier conversation with Hinata, she asked for what she wanted more than anything in the world: Sasuke-kun.

* * *

Long fights with Sasuke-san had trained her eyes to be able to track him, even at his fastest. Naruto-kun was almost as fast, but Sasuke-san was much, much better at taijutsu. Maybe training with her had actually helped him. If so, it was to Naruto-kun's detriment, which she was sorry for but she had made a promise to Sasuke-san. In her mind, she apologized to Naruto-kun and asked his forgiveness for betraying him. For now, she could only watch her hero fight and support him in spirit. Her Byakugan burned hot with chakra as she continued to watch the fight, eyes unblinking.

She was standing with Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, watching the boys try to beat each other into unconsciousness at a random training ground. Kakashi-sensei wasn't apparently watching very closely, instead reading his porn again. She wondered if he knew she could read it even when the pages weren't facing her. In fact, if she wanted to give herself a headache, she could read the entire thing while it was still in his pocket. Which she decided she did, right now, while it was still in his hand.

Blushing instantly, she realized her mistake. Some of the ideas and imagery in it were...very interesting and distracting, she thought, rapidly reading the pages as fast as she could. Since everyone around her fell within her Byakugan's complete vision field, she was already casually looking at all sides (and internal chakra systems) of two very fit, very naked boys (and the _very_ manly Kakashi-sensei, said a part of her mind that giggled madly). Another blush hardly changed her appearance at all at this point.

Technically, and less interestingly, she could also clearly see the tiny-chested, pink-haired one. Who, on closer inspection...was apparently a genuine, natural pinkette (easy to see even in the slightly wash-out colors of the Byakugan) and she also, uhh, shaved except for a small strip...down there. Okay, that was slightly more interesting. Shaking her head, Hinata simply filed everything away for later...contemplation. She continued to relentlessly read the porn book cover to cover while also trying to focus on the fight.

It was good training, she rationalized to herself. She needed to be able to gather all the intel about a battlefield at once and in realtime. Hinata scolded herself for missing what could have been important information about Sakura earlier in their street encounter. If her crotch or cup size had been a weapon or identifying information, she would have missed it, simply because she was squeamish about paying attention to nakedness with her Byakugan.

"Such mistakes could get people killed," said the imaginary Sasuke-san in her head (who was also frowning at her). For the sake of her teammates, she would have to work on memorizing such details whenever she had her eyes active. Even Kakashi-sensei's... details. In any case, reading that book was hopefully just an affectation of his and he actually was supervising. Kurenai-sensei was very careful not to let spars like this go unmonitored so she assumed Kakashi-sensei was doing the same. Hinata could already feel the headache coming on, but she forced herself to continue reading and watching _everything_.

Initially, Sasuke-san was simply dodging as Naruto-kun's attacks got wilder and wilder. Then Hinata gasped, along with Sakura, as dozens of Naruto's clones, the physical Shadow clones, were suddenly attacking all at once from every direction, forcing Sasuke to activate his Sharingan. Even with her Byakugan on, she noticed she couldn't recognize which was the real Naruto. They all had real chakra structures inside them, just like Neji had claimed.

She saw Sasuke kick several rapidly, dispelling them into puffs of smoke, dodge others, and then retreat suddenly. He did a quick shunshin into the air while rapidly forming hand seals, then a spray of fire lit up the clearing. It wasn't very high-temperature, but it was pushing the sparing rules. Like Sasuke-san always did, Hinata recognized. Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to notice or react.

Most of the attacking clones dispelled, but one (or the real Naruto?) was still in midair, thrown by the others the moment Sasuke went airborne. It was still closing in fast from directly behind him. Quick as lightning, the clone (?) struck, punching Sasuke right in the back (a flash of chakra, had he...?) and sending him spiraling down into a tree with a sickening crunch. But when the dust cleared, there was only a broken log embedded part-way into the trunk. Sasuke had used a replacement technique combined with a brief genjutsu to distract Naruto. Just like she'd practiced with him many, many times.

Hinata could see where Sasuke was now, hiding in the branches of a tree on the other side of the clearing, looking for the real Naruto. He made a quick hand seal and a regular bunshin clone stepped out from behind a tree and started apparently firing illusory, genjutsu created shuriken at Naruto (?). The blond, not realizing it was all illusions, dodged away rapidly. That was when another Naruto clone (?) dropped from the trees behind Sasuke's bunshin and started sneaking up on it.

On seeing this, the raven-haired boy seemed to decide that this was the real Naruto and quickly shunshined behind him as well. Throwing a blunt training kunai at the back of his head caused the blond ninja to suddenly turn around and block with his own training kunai, leaving him facing the real Sasuke. That was the opening he was apparently looking for. Naruto froze with his training kunai raised as Sasuke's chakra spiked and seemed to suddenly cover Naruto's entire head. Sasuke had only used a single hand seal.

Keeping a half-seal active to focus his chakra, Sasuke slowly approached Naruto's position. The blond's head was whipping around as he tried to find the now apparently missing Sasuke. Naruto was completely stuck in the powerful illusion. Poor Naruto-kun must have met Sasuke-san's eyes. Two more Naruto clones tried to jump Sasuke from the sides, but he quickly threw senbon at them with his free hand without even turning his head, causing them to disappear in a puff of smoke. Naruto twitched when they disappeared but didn't react otherwise.

Now standing directly in front of Naruto, Sasuke slowly turned to one side, raised his leg, chambered it, and kicked Naruto square in the chest, releasing the genjutsu a fraction of a second after his foot made contact (which would have broken it anyway). Naruto flew through the air, hit a tree on the other side of the clearing, and slumped to the ground.

Kakashi-sensei closed his book with a loud snap. "Ahhhh, that looks like the match," he said lazily, but loud enough to carry across the clearing. "Naruto, you hit the ground first so Sasuke scores the point and wins. Good spar everyone." Sakura was cheering so loud Hinata feared for her hearing.

Naruto-kun was just getting up and dusting himself off, glaring at Sasuke-san, when Sakura jumped up and ran to hug the smirking boy. "Not cool, bastard!" the blond yelled, pointing at Sasuke. "No fair tricking me with an illusion! If I could have used my ultimate technique, you never would have stood a chance!" Sasuke was still smirking at him until Sakura tried to hug him. Then he had to dodge to one side and seemed to grow increasingly annoyed.

"Shut up, loser," Sasuke-san growled. "Like I don't have secret moves of my own. No ninja shows his best stuff in a simple spar. But even without my most powerful moves, I still beat you." He started stomping off, still deftly dodging his pink-haired teammate's grabs.

He then turned back to offer a parting shot. "I can't believe you couldn't break a simple genjutsu, Dead Last. Hinata-san doesn't fall for that one anymore, even with her eyes off. Pathetic. I thought spending all that time with a Sannin would have improved your abilities more, but it seems you're still weaker than a meek little girl."

Hinata still had her Byakugan active and could see the frown behind Kakashi-sensei's mask as his eye darted between Naruto and Sasuke. She couldn't figure out how to feel about what she had just heard. Sasuke-san had sort-of complimented her, but he was also insulting both her and Naruto-kun. But was he right? Had Naruto-kun failed in his hard work? Or was it just Sasuke-san's natural genius that made him stronger? Was her cousin Neji actually right about that? Or maybe Naruto-kun could never beat someone who was both naturally gifted and worked hard, like Sasuke-san did.

Naruto-kun was grinding his teeth now, obviously trying to figure out some brave comeback to Sasuke-san's insults. That was when she saw it. A trickle of bright red chakra, centered around his stomach. Just under...that huge seal that was suddenly visible and faintly glowing with dark red power.

This was it. This was what Hinata had been forgetting. She stared speechless as wisps of red chakra spread all throughout Naruto-kun's chakra system, glowing splotches of foreign power fouling his beautiful blue chakra. She'd seen this chakra before, but not this clearly. Either it was stronger now or her eyes were.

Naruto's normal, human chakra system was slowly being supplemented with this strangely colored, inhuman chakra. And that meant...well, he wasn't like those nasty nukenin, with their dark and evil chakra and strange bodies. Nothing about Naruto-kun could ever be described as "evil." No, this was exactly like Fū-san, and Hinata knew why she had that chakra. Fū-san was a jinchūriki, containing the Seven-tails. Which meant. Naruto was.

She looked deeper, unraveling the structure of the seal on Naruto's stomach, not even knowing what it all meant. She had to see for herself, had to look deeper. Her eyes could see all within her sight, she just had to...push...

She was now looking past the physical, seeing the patterns below it, shapes made of chakra, visions of pure power. Her sight tunneled but she kept pushing, like she was trying to see a distant mountaintop, miles away. The flow of chakra out of the seal was the key. She followed it back, beyond three spatial dimensions, into something that looked a little like summoning space (something she'd briefly seen once when a nearby ninja ran a jutsu). Her eyes burned and her head was trying to explode, but she held everything together, kept looking, kept _unfolding_.

Suddenly, she was staring up into two huge glowing red Eyes and a bright, toothy Grin. Nine horrible Tails of Power whipped in the Background and Metal Bars were superimposed over the entire scene, Caging IT. She screamed inside her head, her mind frozen. She quickly tried to pull back, turn off her eyes,_ anything_ to avoid IT finding her.

And then IT _saw_ her and looked directly into her. In that moment, she suddenly knew that IT already _knew_ her and IT always had. IThad watched, and judged, and _laughed_, this whole time she had been watching Naruto-kun's struggles. IT thought they were both amusing, as were their hopes and dreams and pathetic lives. And then, most horrible of all, IT _smiled_ at her and laughed, long and low, as if they were sharing the joke together. Because IT knew now that _she _knew.

* * *

Everyone in the training area turned and stared when Hinata screamed briefly and collapsed to the ground, fainting dead away.


	16. Chapter 16

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's note on updates:** I've now posted the entire NaNoWriMo buffer I originally wrote in Nov/Dec. I am currently writing no more than a chapter or so ahead. Because of this, I'm dropping Wednesday updates and switching to a Sunday only posting schedule for the near future. If I can build up another monstrous buffer, I'll look into adding a bonus day to the week. Before that happens, my current plan is to go through the last fifteen chapters and do another proofreading and error correcting run. In any case, I haven't missed a scheduled update yet and I don't plan to anytime soon.

Hope to have this story wrapped up in a few more months so I can post the extremely nifty epilogue I've already written. Something to look forward to. As always, thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

He heard the scream and like lightning, faster than thought, his body moved on its own and his Sharingan activated. His feet had barely touched the ground next to Hinata's body before he was scanning the treeline for threats. Seeing nothing immediately, and noticing Kakashi wasn't moving yet, he figured it wasn't an attack and turned his eyes to the dark-haired girl sprawled on the ground.

No obvious injuries, except for maybe a new bump on the back of her head where she'd landed awkwardly. Maybe it was just a fainting spell. She was obviously still breathing fine and had a good pulse, judging by the tiny movements on her neck. Finally taking a deep breath, he relaxed a tiny amount. Sasuke looked around slowly to see everyone else simply staring at him as he crouched beside Hinata where she lay on the ground – his eyes were still spinning like mad.

"Nee, Sasuke-kun...I think she just fainted," Kakashi drawled slowly as he ambled closer, tucking his book into his green flak jacket. Sasuke glared at him before turning back to Hinata. He started straightening her limbs out into something less awkward and uncomfortable looking. As he was placing her hands on her chest, he shut down his Sharingan again and tried to remember what had happened, one hand still resting gently on top of hers.

Hinata had been standing _here_, he was with the pink harpy over _there_, Naruto had been _there_. And Hinata had been staring at Naruto for about four seconds before fainting. "What did she see?" he wondered to himself, searching the blond idiot for clues. Had Naruto pulled a real weapon, had he been planning on attacking him from behind? The orange idiot just looked a little worried but he didn't seem guilty or anything. Interesting.

"Really, Sasuke-kun, it is fine," Kakashi said slowly. Sasuke stood up as his sensei sidled up next to him.

"She does this all the time, you see – especially around Naruto," Kakashi said with a perverted leer that was somehow detectable even with his mask on. "Doesn't usually scream like that, though," he finished thoughtfully, tapping his chin.

Just then Hinata's bodyguard, Suzume he thought her name was, dropped out of the trees and hurried over to check on Hinata – still looking sedate and collected the whole time, of course. She was still a Hyūga, after all. After briefly conferring with Kakashi, and apparently satisfied by his answers, she gathered Hinata up and took off in the direction of the Uchiha compound.

"Well kids, show's over," Kakashi said, clapping his hands once to gather them in. Naruto and Sakura joined him standing in front of their sensei and they waited for him to speak.

Kakashi looked over his team for a few moments and then sighed. "We've got a problem, my cute little genin. I have already been assigned a mission and I'm leaving immediately. Because of the attack at the Chūnin Exams, Leaf has suffered huge losses in our chūnin and jōnin forces. Almost half of active duty forces are dead or incapacitated, many of those out medium to long term. Some of those who survived will still never serve as ninja again." His eyes seemed to be looking past them at something, but he quickly returned his focus to his students, looking them over again.

"The Academy is currently closed, freeing up more chūnin, but it still isn't enough. We need to keep running as many missions now as before the attack, both to support the village and to show how strong we still are. You'll need to do your part by running D-rank cleanup and C-rank close-patrol missions on your own until I return. Some of these C-ranked mission will be with Leaf chūnin, ninja you may have never met before. You _will _obey their orders as you would my own." Kakashi glared at them, looking for any resistance. Even Naruto wasn't saying anything stupid now. Everyone could sense how serious this situation was.

"I'll leave your with a training schedule, but most of your time will likely be spent on missions. I'm sure you'll do fine." Kakashi said. He was grinning at them with his eyes again now. Annoying.

"Just report to the missions office tomorrow and they'll set you up," he finished, waving them off with one lazy hand.

Team Seven started to disperse, long experience helping them recognize the lazy dismissal. Sakura had already started trying again to ask him out on a date or something (really, what was the point in that?) when Kakashi spoke up and gestured him over.

"Oy, Sasuke-kun, I need a minute," his sensei said, lazily of course. Sasuke slouched over to him, ready for yet another pep-talk. Or maybe something about using a fireball a teammate. Again. Naruto and Sakura drifted off separately, hopefully to go home and leave him alone.

"I've head about your situation with the Hyūga," Kakashi started, plainly and directly stating the topic of conversation. Well, that was a bit surprising. Not that Kakashi knew, but that he wanted to talk about it.

"This is the kind of thing I can't really help you with..." his sensei said, staring off into the trees and rubbing the back of his head, "but if you ever need a man to talk to about anything, I'm here...I guess."

"Inspiring," Sasuke thought, trying very hard not to roll his eyes. He simply nodded in reply, though.

"Ahh, good, good," Kakashi said, negligently. "Well, as long as it doesn't interfere with your missions or training, I won't say anything else."

Sasuke turned to leave again, a headache already forming from his overuse of the Sharingan earlier and having to talk to annoying people all day. Kakashi suddenly spoke up again. "One last thing, Sasuke-kun: keep training with that cute little Hyūga, eh?" Sasuke could hear the grin in his voice and didn't turn around.

"Her teacher is a genjutsu master, you know. And, ahh...that was some of the best combat genjutsu I've seen from a genin in a long time. You know, that you used to catch Naruto-kun at the end. Also, I guess, hmm...in general, your hands are moving much faster now. I imagine your shunshin improved to get out of the way of her jūken strikes as well. Good stuff. Keep it up, Sasuke-kun." Sasuke turned around in surprise, just in time to see an eye-smiling Kakashi disappear in a puff of smoke with a final wave.

Making his way back home at a leisurely pace, slouching along on the ground for once, Sasuke stopped to watch the sun set over the edge of the village and tried to sort out his strangely conflicted feelings about Naruto being back. On one hand, he was an annoying blond idiot who dressed in orange, despite being a goddamn shinobi. Orange. Really.

On the other hand, he was a teammate and had strange powers that might help Sasuke eventually track down and kill his brother. But on the illusory floating genjutsu hand, Naruto already had a whole group of S-rank killer nukenin after him, _including_ Itachi – who knew what other chaos Naruto's mere presence would cause in the future. All in all, he made things complicated just by existing. Sasuke hated complicated things. Just then, things got even more complicated. Sasuke cursed silently. Someone was following him again. Great.

At least he was reasonably sure it wasn't Hinata. Maybe it was Sakura. The useless, whiny girl had been all over him after his inevitable victory in the spar. So annoying. Better duck down an alley and try to escape. But also, stay cool. No reason to hurry. He ducked down the next alley, already plotting his escape route back to the Uchiha compound. After he'd taken a few steps he started to get a better sense of his stalker as they had to close range to keep him in sight. Maybe this would help him identify the hidden ninja.

But no, this was a larger chakra presence than his pink teammate. A powerful and threatening sensory impression, but one very well masked. If he hadn't spent the last few weeks carefully playing around with delicate simulated chakra illusions inside a complex genjutsu, he might not have even noticed. Then he detected three more contacts and all his senses went into high alert. Four shadowy shapes dropped down around him, pinning him in on all sides and trapping him in the alley he'd intentionally walked down. Damn.

Sasuke slowly cracked his neck side to side, hands still in his pockets, then glanced over his shoulder. His Sharingan was spinning rapidly in both eyes, two points glowing red in the shadows of the dimly illuminated alley.

"How annoying. Foreign ninja," he said out loud, eying the strangers with a bored look on his face. Looking closer, he added, "Sound. Hn. Are you looking for a fight?"

"Ha, trash like you-" started the girl. Good, Sasuke thought, a weak point. Always hit them while they're monologuing. Nothing fatal, though. They might just be assholes, not enemies. Shouldn't have been able to make it this far into the village if they were hostile, so better not kill them yet. That helped keep his killing intent closely reigned in, and he hoped doing so would also help with the element of surprise. Maybe just knock them off balance and get out. Answers can come later. Or not. How annoying. The girl was still talking, something about him being weak. Surprise time.

Without turning around, Sasuke suddenly shunshined up to the Sound kunoichi and punched her square in her right breast, hard, knocking her straight backward. Her feet skidding in the dirt, she ended up hunched over a dozen feet away from where he stood in the middle of the alley.

"ARRRGGHH! FUCKING FUCK THE FUCKER UP, YOU FUCKS! FUUUUUCK!" she screamed, clutching her abused chest and stomping around while strange black marks started crawling over her skin. Heh, most kunoichi never properly protected that natural weakness. So pathetic. Sasuke sure as hell was wearing a padded metal cup all the time now. Hinata had quickly and eagerly shown him how necessary that was and had taken his earlier demonstration to heart herself. That move wouldn't have worked on her.

The tall, darker-skinned ninja with two extra sets of arms looked almost as shocked as the girl, and was leaning away from the screaming kunoichi instead of watching Sasuke like he should have.

This earned him a low-to-high kick to the chin that knocked him into the air. Sasuke followed that up with a flying knee to his back when the Sound shinobi tried to hit him with an elbow (which he saw coming a mile away). Shadowing him into the air, now half-way up the alley walls, Sasuke decided to end the Lion Combo before the others joined in. He stopped his opponent's upward arc with a powerful axe kick to his stomach and then, when the extra-armed shinobi hit the ground with a sicking thud, he finished by landed on him with a crushing stomp to the chest, hopefully as a killing blow.

But his foe was no longer there, and Sasuke had only cracked the ground with his strike. Of course, how annoying. He'd barely seen the ninja slip away, another strange black chakra pattern racing across the his skin. Glancing around, none of the others had done more than start forward from the other side of the alley. The spidery shinobi was nowhere to be seen and the girl was still swearing like a slightly uninventive sailor while clutching her chest.

Sasuke decided this restrictive environment and unknown enemy was far too similar to the encounter in the hotel corridor with his brother for his own liking. He dashed toward the exit out of the alley, past the still distracted Sound kunoichi. She swung a kick wildly at him, far faster than he expected, but she telegraphed the move enough that his eyes had no problem picking it up. He simply slid low under the blow and past her. Just when he thought he might get away clean, the strange looking pale guy with something on his back appeared in front of him and kicked him into the wall.

"Not so fast, trash. We've still got to have a little talk with you," said the effeminate man with strange black shapes now crawling over his skin as well. Suddenly, Sasuke recognized that unsealing pattern. It was almost exactly like what happened to him with his own cursed mark. Which meant...that they were with Orochimaru. As the unladylike girl was still saying in the background: fuck.

He was about to give a witty answer with his ninja shoe to the Sound shinobi's face when the missing spider-nin glued him with his back to the wall with some kind of nasty stringy web thing from above. Gross _and _annoying.

"Thank you for finally taking out the trash, Kidōmaru," the other man, apparently their leader, said sarcastically.

"LET ME GUT THE FUCKER!" screamed the painfully bruised kunoichi as she stomped over to him, kunai raised to the correct gutting height and with the generally approved, reverse-hand, knuckles-over gutting grip. Their leader, the unnamed wimpy guy with the strong right leg, gray emo hair, and a strange backpack sighed and shook his head.

"Nope, sorry Tayuya. Gotta give the trash our master's offer. Odd," he said, looking Sasuke in the eye, "he didn't even try to use the seal. Maybe he's too weak."

"Or maybe the cocksucker realizes that it gives your motherfucking mind over to Orochimaru's control after you fucking use it for long enough," said the slightly calmer Tayuya. "And it doesn't hardly do fuck all if you just release it like it is now, unrefined. If you're careful, you're okay, sure. Every last motherfucker wants more Kami-damned power, though. The cockheaded newblets always end up going too fucking far in the end. It is too fucking late for us now, but that is the shittyass price we paid for the amazing motherfucking powers we now have. Maybe the assfucker just doesn't want Kami-like powers and awe-inspiring fucking abilities bad enough to be a zombie shithead in the end."

"Could be," said the leader. "Or he might just be too much of a coward to seize the power he's being offered." He walked over to stand directly in front of Sasuke and pointed at the rapidly retreating blank marks on his skin.

"Look here, this is the power of just the first level of our curse seals. We are faster and stronger than you could ever become in this pathetic village, just by unsealing this much. We are each a hundred time more powerful at the second level. This is true strength and our master offers it to you, if you only have the drive to take it for yourself."

Sasuke looked appraising at the gray-haired shinobi, peering deep into his eyes, searching for something. "All of you? You all paid that price for this power?" he asked quietly, not even attempting to struggle out of the web. All four of them slowly nodded, meeting his gaze with annoyed, blank, pissed off, and calm faces in return. He noticed their black curse marks had all retreated again by this point. Sasuke nodded, but not, as they might think, at their offer.

"I see. Then you are all...fools," Sasuke replied, smirking. "Your power is nothing compared to my sworn enemy. The one I'll kill one day, the one who I need the power to defeat...compared to him you are foolish, powerless CHILDREN! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Sasuke threw his head back and loud, insane laughter filled the alleyway. All the other ninja took a step back, trying to distance themselves instinctively from the clearly unhinged boy.

"Look at you! You still think you've WON!" The web holding him immediately appeared on the ground in a pile as Sasuke vanished into thin air. Pieces of rubble shimmered into view, showing where the wall had been destroyed behind the web in the process of freeing their captive.

"SHITDICKS!" cursed Tayuya, looking around frantically. "When did he fucking do that?" Kidōmaru kicked some of the broken bricks and spat, sticky web hitting the ground. The huge man just starting munching on a sandwich he'd hidden in his shuriken pouch.

"Looks like it was immediately after he figured out our attack pattern and took advantage of our glowing weak points," Kidōmaru said grimly. "He looked all of us in the eyes with his Sharingan on, cast four critical-success genjutsu, then attacked the environmental object behind him while we were stun-locked in the illusion. Bad ending, man."

Their leader looked around, flipped his gray fringe out of his eyes, then sighed softly. "No matter, it didn't look like it would have worked anyway. He obviously wasn't ready yet. More pain and proof of his weakness will only help lead him to the correct conclusion. On to plan B. Just make damn sure the trash doesn't escape this time, or Orochimaru will kill us all."

All three of the other ninja nodded, then disappeared in all directions to evade the ANBU patrol that was surely on its way.

* * *

She'd done it again – fainting in front of her hero. Who was a jinchūriki, apparently. Which meant he was...what? The brave boy she'd looked at from afar all this time? A monster, the Kyūbi itself? She took a deep breath and ran through another quick series of moves, her hands thudding against the training post.

No, no he wasn't that monster. She'd seen it, trapped within his seal. Contained and angry about it. If anything, Naruto was the jailer not the jailed. Maybe...maybe he didn't even know. She needed to talk to him. Ask him some important questions, maybe help him understand if he didn't already know. If only she could avoid blushing and stuttering the whole time. Because she now knew why her father had warned her away from him, why the other ninja looked at him strangely, and why the villagers all hated him. It all made sense now, no matter how unfair it was.

Hinata had spent an hour training at #72 and was about to finish up and return home. Waking up being carried by her friend and bodyguard Suzume-san, she'd asked to be set down before they'd reached the Uchiha compound, horribly embarrassed yet again by her own weakness. But as Sasuke-san had showed her, the correct response to that kind of disgrace was more and harder training. So instead of shambling home with her head hung low in shame, she would train until she dropped. Now the sun was just setting and she was getting truly tired, her limbs aching and her chakra system burning a little from the effort. Without warning, she heard a thud and Suzume-san cried out in pain behind her.

Immediately activating her Byakugan, she saw her friend and bodyguard flying through a tree at the edge of the clearing. It wasn't apparent how hurt she was, but the cause was obvious. A large, hulking man with a flaring chakra system was now where she must have been standing, clearly her assailant. There was a strange, angular pattern of black chakra covering most of his body that was just now receding into a seal on his neck. Whatever it was, it was dark and evil looking, filled with malignant power. Threads of it still circulated in his body, but most of it was retreating into a seal on his neck.

Three other strong chakra signatures surrounded her, lurking at the edge of the training area. None of them bearing the strange moving marks but all possessed of a strange seal of their own. Looking closer, she realized it was very similar to the one Sasuke-san had on his neck. The one he never, ever talked about, that he had suddenly gained after the Chūnin Exam's forest survival challenge. The one that occasionally leaked a strange dark power, which Sasuke-san seemed to force back with every fiber of his being.

She realized she had almost frozen in place and was still surrounded by strange ninja. Looking closer, she could see a Hidden Village of Sound headband on one of them. An enemy village. Oh Kami no. There could only be one reason for enemy ninja to be in the village like this, only one reason for them to have attacked her bodyguard and surrounded her. Cold steel bands seemed to compress her chest and she crouched down, starting to gasp for air over the pain.

Her vision grew crisper as more chakra poured into her eyes, forcing them past her usual limits and expanding her range even further. She counted the blades of grass on her shoes, the falling body of Suzume-san on the other side of the clearing seemed to slow down, barely moving, and every hidden weapon and storage seal on her would-be kidnappers was now naked before her eyes. As she expected, she panicked next, her mind going blank as she started to shake. But she almost immediately stopped and her hands stilled once again. Her long training gave her focus now, steeling her to one purpose, one goal, one thought: they wouldn't take her alive.

Hinata screamed at the top of her lungs, a sound filled with rage and terror and pain, and then shunshined straight at the one between her and the Uchiha compound, who was also the smallest of them and female and thus (Hinata being a rare exception to the rule) least likely to be a taijutsu specialist. The strange ninja was also, if she had her way, dead in three-tenths of a second.

"Oh what the fu-" said the enemy kunoichi, a fraction of a second before Hinata's blazing open palm strike intersected with her face. Or at least, where her face should have been. The glowing blue chakra from Hinata's hand seared a dark burn mark across the Sound kunoichi's cheek as she barely dodged out of the way of the killing blow. The enemy kunoichi's hands and arms were moving to guard her chest for some reason, which screwed up Hinata's plan to put her other hand through the girl's heart. No matter, there was another strike that would disable her long enough that Hinata could get past to escape. Her striking hand fell on the other kunoichi's shoulder and briefly gripped it, just like she'd practiced with Sasuke so many times. Close combat moves were so much fun.

The scruffy-haired kunoichi didn't dodge the vicious rising knee strike – one not from a jūken kata, but Hinata's own adaptation and part of one of Sasuke's infighting combos. It impacted right into the surprised-looking kunoichi's crotch at full power. Hinata let go of her shoulder as the chakra enhanced blow that could split thick wooden boards sent the foreign ninja sprawling to one side, now in immense pain. She didn't bother to finish the combination by trying to stomp the girl's head in, but simply shunshined as far as she could in one jump and then started sprinting at full speed while continuing to scream.

She'd almost made it out of the small forested area and onto the a main road when the tall Sound shinobi with too many arms caught up with her, jumping in front of Hinata. He tried to wrap her in a strange spider-silk like set of threads that shot out of his mouth but she dodged to one side and cut through the few that got too close with a chakra edged knife-hand sweep, drawing curses from her opponent. Then she was upon him, her hands blurring into a whirlwind of pain. He took several strikes on his arms before catching on and trying to disengage. He failed and was simply pressed back.

"What the hell? This was supposed to be a lowbie, not a miniboss!" he yelled, barely avoiding losing his heart to an especially fierce body strike. Hinata was still screaming at the top of her lungs, but it was sounding more like a battle cry now. She dodged several extremely fast kicks, an unnatural number of punches, then started striking back at the limbs as they went by. Some hits connected, but most were dodged. He was slowing down now, several of the chakra points on his six arms already closed.

"Shit! You overpowered, exploit using fag! Well I guess I'll just have to go up to level one. Game over, bitch," the Sound shinobi growled at her. Hinata didn't give him a chance to do whatever that was, and immediately whipped her hands through the fastest combat genjutsu she knew, one to make the opponent think someone was behind them and emitting killing intent like they were about to strike the victim down.

Her opponent was good. He barely flinched, sliding instantly to one side and turning only half-way around to get a better look behind himself. All this while a set of strange chakra filled marks started crawling across his skin. She still didn't give him a chance to collect himself, striking in a flurry of body blows, each one designed to destroy internal organs and kill. Kidneys, Heart, Liver, Lungs, Spine, Brain. Those were her targets with every stiff fingered strike, her body twisting around attempted counterattacks, the few hits she took on her arms and body irrelevant to her own rain of deadly blows.

The Sound shinobi shouted in pain as several strikes connected, only slightly off target because of his attempts to dodge. But instead of going down, his body suddenly filled with the dark chakra and he started moving like lightning. A quick grab and he had both her arms trapped and her legs held with his extra arms, dragging off her feet as he attempted to pin her to the ground.

Almost entirely exhausted now, she tried something she'd never really practiced before – attempting it more through sheer desperation than good sense. Reaching out, feeling for the chakra points on her wrists, arms, and legs, she shoved all the Fire molded chakra she could out of them, burning herself and her chakra pathways in the process. It was agony and her arms and legs seemed to glow with flames for a fraction of a second.

Her attacker's hands instantly lit on fire and he screamed again, immediately dropping her. Just as she was trying to get up and run, the huge Sound ninja who'd attack Suzume-san appeared behind her and a wall of earth seemed to fall on top of her, smothering her burning shirt and pants and trapping her against the ground in a shallow dome.

She could literally see her remaining chakra flowing away and into the surrounding air, where it was sucked off somewhere into the dirt. Her Byakugan dropped as her control wavered and failed. Just as she started losing the fight for consciousness, she heard her captors arguing outside the earth barrier.

"Fucking fuck fuck, what the weeping shitcunt were your cockheads doing?!" the girl was yelling. "I can't feel my balls anymore, you useless motherfuckers! That Kami-buggering slutbitch punted me right in the fucking gash!"

"Look, you shouldn't talk like that. You're a girl, you know," said a deep voice.

"Yeah, and my kids will still be feeling that one, you fucking useless cocksucker!" she replied angrily. "Where the shitfuck were you three while this fucking little cumdumpster was playing kick the clam!? This is the second Kami-damned time today someone's punched my fucking tits around while you useless asslickers watched and wanked off!"

A groan, and the extra-armed man's voice spoke up, "Ugh, I think she liquified my spleen. I didn't know that was even a hit location. Good Kami, my status screen shows I don't even have a left kidney anymore! Need...healing...potion..."

A soft, possibly-male voice laughed long and melodiously. "Tayuya, you don't _have_ balls, you stupid bitch. And stop complaining, Kidōmaru. Orochimaru's cursed seal will have you two healed up and organ-damage free in no time. For now, we need to take this trashy little fireball with us and return to point Charlie to meet up with Kimimaro for the next phase. We gotta move now – I'm sure the defense forces are reacting already. Jirōbō, hold her down another second."

"Sure thing, Sakon," said the deep voice. A sudden and discordant sound made Hinata's head feel like it was splitting open. She flailed at the earth barrier briefly and uselessly, then all was blackness.

* * *

Sakura had just seen Hinata get kidnapped, but not moving to help wasn't even a thought that made it to her first morality filter. Inner Sakura was growling in her head at the very _idea _of a Leaf kunoichi getting kidnapped from the middle of the village.

All kunoichi had "The Lecture" in their last year at the Academy, outlining _exactly_ what was likely to happen to any females captured by enemy forces. She knew why they did that: to elicit exactly the reaction she was currently experiencing when something like this happened in the field. Knowing that didn't stop her heart from racing and her lunch from trying to violently evacuate her body. She barely kept it together, mostly because she _had_ to. Instead, she moved as fast as she could.

All of the insanely powerful Sound ninja were gone by the time she'd raced down from the tree she was using to spy on Hinata's training. She had figured that a hundred yards away was far enough that the little Hyūga wouldn't be able to immediately spot her with the Byakugan, though rumors suggested that if Hinata was actively looking, that range wouldn't be anywhere near enough. The pair of scout binocs swung loose from Sakura's neck as she raced toward where the Hyūga bodyguard was lying in a ditch, dug by the abrupt and violent interruption to her brief flight. The huge Sound shinobi had appeared from nowhere and simply punched her through a tree and clear out of the training area in one hit, some strange marks crawling on his skin the entire time. Sakura hoped the woman was still alive.

Thank Kami, she was. Her breathing was ragged, though, and one of her arms was painfully and obviously broken. The woman was still barely conscious, her gray eyes dim and unfocused. Maybe a concussion.

"Y-you, Haruno-san," the woman she said weakly, gesturing Sakura over with her working hand. Sakura knelt by the injured woman, trying to remember her first-aid training as she reflexively searched the woman for a standard personal field medical pouch.

"Always use the patient's healing supplies if at all possible," went the training lecture in her head. She found the bandages and started attempting to clean and apply pressure to the worst of her bleeding gashes, one far too close to a major artery on her leg, and all without moving the patient's body or back too much. Spinal damage was a serious concern with this kind of injury, she remembered. If only she had a little more training and could actually use a healing medical jutsu. Wait, she did have something. Stopping in the middle of bandaging the wound, she shakily used the seals for the basic medical diagnostics jutsu, the only one she even sort of knew. At least it wouldn't hurt the patient if it failed.

"N-no, leave me. I will live," the woman said, panting, trying to push Sakura's glowing hands away. "You need to follow Hinata-sama. Now. Please. I know you have a medical monitoring tag on her. Use it, quickly. Follow her. I will tell them to send the hunter teams when ANBU shows up." She coughed weakly, blood splattering Sakura's dress. Neither of them even noticed.

"Please. You need to stay within range. I can not order you as I am no longer an active duty Leaf ninja, but you know...it is your duty. Please," the dark haired woman was loosing consciousness rapidly. Quickly finishing strapping the pressure bandage on the woman's deeply cut leg, Sakura decided she wasn't going to die in the next three minutes or so – the average response time for ANBU defense forces in this area of the village. So now there was a choice to make.

If she stayed, she could help keep the Hyūga woman alive and give a detailed report to the first responders, but Hinata might never been seen again. Sakura avoid thinking about how that would help her position with Sasuke-kun with mental strength she didn't know she had.

Ninja law was clear. First on site to a violent incursion inside Konoha were authorized to perform hot pursuit action if not under directly conflicting orders, so long as the transgressors stayed within Fire Country borders and any response was relative to the threat posed.

However, this was what was allowed, not what was required. The choice belonged to the individual if there was no higher-ranked Leaf ninja or duly assigned team leader in the area. Similarly, as a mere medical trainee, she wasn't authorized to command forces in medical matters but also didn't have an oath to stay and help injured Leaf ninja to the exclusion of all other offensive actions, as trained and certified field medics did. So she didn't have to stay, either. She needed to decide what to do, now. In less than a second, her mind was made up.

Triage on protecting fellow ninja: the woman was fine for now and was less than a minute at full evac speed from the best hospital in Konoha. Staying would help her only a minimal amount. Following Hinata and blazing a trail for trackers to follow was the priority. She could take the coward's way out, but those who abandoned their fellow ninja were worse than scum. Thank Kami she'd been stalking Hinata when they kidnapped the girl.

Sakura set off at a dead run, hands rapidly moving to activate the stolen medical monitoring tag, the pair to which she'd placed on Hinata's jacket earlier. It would be useless for its original purpose, sending back medical data on a patient, as it wasn't in direct skin contact. But its other purpose was to show _where_ the patient was, so any medical alerts could be responded to quickly in the field or an unfamiliar or non-standard hospital environment. It was, effectively, a tracking tag, so long as Sakura was within about a mile of it.

It was also naturally stealthy, designed to avoid confusion with other tags in a crowded environment by sending a well-shielded, tag-to-tag signal – it wouldn't give her away even after she activated it. Hinata might notice it active with her eyes if she looked closely, but they'd simply thrown her in a bag before running off, so they must have missed it. She'd have to move fast to make sure she stayed close enough, but its range was still enough that they shouldn't find her unless they doubled-back or split up to set a complicated and well-disguised ambush. Sakura would have to be alert to that, maybe by following slightly off-line of their travel route.

Her mind spinning, she moved at top speed in the general direction the paired tag said was Hinata Hyūga's current location. She would find where they were taking that poor little girl, even at great risk to her own life. And maybe if she died in the attempt, Sasuke-kun would recognize how hard she'd tried and remember her fondly.


	17. Chapter 17

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note: **This is the first update on the new schedule. Next update is Sunday, Feb 10. Also, I'm starting a little experiment by setting up a forum on this site for people to discuss this story and others I've written. Visit my Profile page for details and a link to the fan forum. I'll post detailed progress updates as I work on new chapters, answer reader questions, and talk about some of my ideas in more details than prose allows. Basically, all the stuff I refuse to do in these Author's Notes.

As always, I welcome your comments and reviews. Any questions asked on my forum, however, get answered and discussed publicly, where everyone can see them. I'll try to answer every one that's posted. Thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

Man, the stupid vest was so heavy and itchy. Stupid senior chūnin told him he had to wear it during every mission and all the time, even to bed, for a month and that they'd know if he wasn't wearing it. And he had to take it off to shower and couldn't wash it, either. Such obvious hazing. Well, harmless enough and too much trouble to get around with simple tricks, which was probably what they were expecting. So they could haze him some more about getting caught cheating. Tch.

It was starting to smell, though. He needed to ask Kiba for some of his family's special scent-blocking stuff. Not technically washing but it was a pain to get his hands on. Man...

But right now he had to finish dealing with people waking him up in the middle of the night with orders to report to the Hokage's office instantaneously. Well, the new Hokage's orders had to be followed and stuff but it was still...what could be this important? Well, it was a long run to the tower, even at full speed, so he had time to think.

Too much time to think, not that that was usual. He thought rather faster than most people, he'd found, and this tended to leave him bored when he was out of new things to think about, which made him look even lazier. And people talked so slow – it was hard to wait for them and pay attention when he could sometimes work out everything they were going to say for the rest of the conversation in the middle of the first sentence. So much talking was fluff. Made waiting for them to finish troublesome.

Well, his dad was out of the village right now as was his sensei, along with most non-ANBU senior ninja – essentially, all jōnin and most of the chūnin. Maybe the village had been attacked? No, no signs of ANBU, the messenger had just been an office chūnin, and nothing was obviously on fire. A mission then. Might just be a B-rank with a time limit. But why him? Why was the Hokage personally asking for him? Gah...troublesome. His mind went peacefully blank as he ran on automatic the rest of the way down his front walk and on toward the tower.

* * *

Walking past the waiting guards (eyed him strangely, let him pass without a word...interesting) and straight into the Hokage's office was unusual and got his attention. Seeing Sasuke Uchiha on the Hokage's couch, pouring over scrolls with his Shringan active instantly woke Shikamaru up. It shocked him deeply: he almost changed his facial expression from terminally bored and nearly stood up straighter.

Something was very, very wrong if Sasuke was here. You didn't drag the Uchiha heir out of bed for a simple B-rank, no matter that he was technically a genin. He was a super-celebrity and people wouldn't stand for that sort of thing being done to him. But on the other hand, one simply_ did not _use jutsu or bloodline abilities in the Hokage's presence. For that to be allowed suggested...bad things.

Hands still shoved in his pockets, Shikamaru continued steadily walking toward the Hokage's desk, trying not to move his eyes too fast as he took another very brief and carefully lazy look around the room. The rest of the office was filled with Hyūga. Great. They didn't usually swarm like this outside their compound. Shikamaru's Troublesome Meter maxed out instantly.

There were a half-dozen of them visible, two of them hovering directly over the Uchiha's shoulders. Very interesting. He knew that the Uchiha was betrothed to Hinata Hyūga and that their clan ninja were now running all levels of security for the Uchiha compound. But they were looking very, very twitchy for some reason right now, even in what should be the safest room in the village. There should be at least three, maybe four high-level ANBU hanging from the walls and ceilings at all times, assuming Konoha wasn't actually at war or anything. He hoped they weren't.

But these guys were acting like someone was going to attack the Uchiha heir at any time. They were even giving Shika the eye, or at least the Hyūga version – subtly making sure they kept their primary hand side toward Shikamaru and slowly turning their entire bodies without moving their heads to keep him in sight, since they weren't allowed to turn on their own eyes in the Hokage's office. They looked like creepy ninja dolls in a music box, all turning stiffly at the same time to look at him.

All of this took less than one footstep as he walked into the office. He needed more information but he couldn't ask anyone any questions yet, even if he could figure out what to ask. That was also assuming he could summon the mental strength to think slow enough to pay attention to the answers. So now he would be bored until he reached the desk and saluted the Hokage. Then _she'd _want to talk. Sigh. He let his gaze drift back to the Uchiha again and almost flinched. Sasuke was staring right at him now, the clan heir's red, tomoe-filled spinning eyes boring holes into him.

Remembering some clan intelligence from his dad from before the Chūnin Exams, Shika immediately moved to look at Sasuke's chin instead of his eyes, but the black-haired boy was still glaring at him like he was trying to light Shika's pineapple-ponytailed head on fire with his mind. The killing intent hit him like a brick and Shikamaru almost staggered.

Well that confirmed it. Something was really bugging Sasuke, not just being woken up. Shika saw that Sasuke's entire body was tense and there were stress lines forming on his face. What could get the young Rookie of the Year so upset? Enemy attack on his person, attempt on his life, kidnapping attempt, village plot against his clan inheritance...no, none of those fit. And he seemed to want to be in action, out of this office – to go and kill someone, obviously. But who? And why did he look guilty about whatever it was?

Taking another step and returning his mind to neutral (thinking was too troublesome with so little information) he sleepily slouched across the office to the Hokage's desk, then saluted and stood at attention. Sort of. And waited forever.

A whole second later (forever), the Hokage looked up and immediately started in on his briefing. Thankfully, Shika was so fired up, his attention hadn't yet wandered again. She must have had experience talking to other Nara, as she simply started stating facts while ignoring polite protocol.

"Nara-san, your mission is to lead an A-ranked VIP rescue," Tsunade-sama said simply and quickly. Shika gulped and stood up straighter, not caring that he was breaking character. Sasuke furious, middle of the night mission, the Hyūga like angry bees. Shit. Hinata. Very, very troublesome.

"What?" he said, intelligently, then mentally slapped himself for saying something that obvious.

The Hokage continued, confirming his fears. "Hinata Hyūga was kidnapped from training ground #72 seventeen minutes ago. A single special jōnin level Hyūga bodyguard and a rookie Leaf genin were on-site. The genin was a good distance from the attack and did not attempt to engage the superior enemy force. The bodyguard was immediately disabled without damaging the attackers. Afterward, she was able to provide minimal intelligence on the four attackers before entering surgery to repair her injuries. The information she gave us is contained within this folder." The young-but-obviously-old woman slid a folder across the desk to him. He quickly picked it up and started reading it while she continued, the pages flipping rapidly. Apparently also knowing this was par for the course for Nara briefings, the Hokage didn't take offense and continued.

"Your number one objective is to prevent the enemy from escaping with the hostage. You will spend any resources at your disposal to accomplish this mission. Directly prosecuting an attack on the enemy is a secondary objective, only to be considered after the primary objective is secured." Shika translated this from mission speak: don't come back without her, let your entire team die honorably in battle before losing her to the enemy...and kill Hinata if you can't bring her back because that would be kinder than letting Orochimaru kidnap a young clan girl with a powerful bloodline. And, after you manage to get her back safe or (Kami forbid) have to kill her, and assuming anyone on your Kami-forsaken team is still alive, kill every last enemy shithead you find.

"What a horrible mission," he thought to himself. "Fucking troublesome."

Taking less than a second to think through the options after having read the pathetically limited intelligence on the four Sound ninja responsible, and the genin and two ex-chūnin who were in pursuit of them, he spoke up at last. "Hokage-sama, I request a team of at least four jōnin or combat veteran chūnin for this mission, more if possible." And now she wouldn't look him in the eyes. Shit.

"Nara-san," she started slowly, staring at her desk, "there are no experienced ninja available for this mission. You will have to select from the genin corps exclusively for any Leaf resources on this mission." Her eyes flicked briefly to the Hyūga waiting in the room. Right. Politics. The village had been attacked again on her first day in office, the best ninja were already on missions, and the clan and civilian councils would demand ANBU forces secure the village first. This left the Hyūga screaming bloody murder and demanding the entire ANBU be sent after Hinata, but all the brand-new Hokage could do without drawing fire for stripping the village of defenders is send a brand new chūnin with his overpowered clan heir genin friends. Fucking wonderful. Two seconds later, he responded.

"I understand, Hokage-sama. Given the information here, and the fact that these were the same forces assisting Orochimaru assassinate the Third Hokage by forming an incredibly strong barrier, it is extremely likely that they will be attempting to lure Sasuke Uchiha out of the village and into a trap of some kind. This is likely going to be aided by complicated prepared traps, high-level barrier jutsu, and large, chakra-intensive techniques used from ambush."

She nodded at him, agreeing. "Yes, given that they approached Uchiha-san earlier today with an offer to help him defect from Konoha, this seems to be the second part of a plan to bribe or threaten him into joining Orochimaru. Eyewitness reports suggest that they might not have very advanced taijutsu, relying instead on a cursed seal powered by Orochimaru to quickly overwhelm opponents with powerful, single attacks. Stamina and recovery times might be an issue for them if this is an artificial chakra infusion."

"Normally," Shika continued, "I'd suggest this mission was impossible and not worth the trouble of even trying." The Hokage glared at him but waited for him to continue. "Given the timing, they obviously knew when our strongest forces would be out of the village. They attacked literally hours after the last active jōnin were sent out on missions. This suggests troubling levels of infiltration and intelligence gathering, along with their demonstrated ability to enter into the village undetected and leave with a prisoner."

"They didn't make it out unscathed," the Hokage interrupted. "Two jōnin were injured when the four enemy ninja attempted to make their escape from the village with their hostage. Reports from them suggest the seal has a second level that is even more powerful than what Sasuke saw, but that it takes a great deal out of them to use it. They were yelling at each other about having to 'go to level two' when they were making their escape after the fight."

Shika ignored protocol again and moved to flop down into a chair off to one side of the Hokage's desk. Reverse-steepling his fingers in his own personal "thoughtful" pose, he worked through the problem. Taking a few deep breaths, he saw that it would be troublesome, but possible.

"I'll need most if not all of the Rookie Nine and as much of Gai-sensei's team as possible," Shikamaru finally said.

"Done," answered the Hokage, signing a scroll, then rolling it up and handing it to him. "Use that mission order to recruit anyone you want from the genin corps. Move fast and draw equipment from the storehouse – personal equipment might not be enough for this mission, so don't skimp."

The Hokage sighed and looked at another pile of paperwork on her desk. "There is a very, very small chance that an elite assault team will be sent as backup later today. Do not count on that or delay waiting for them. Begin this mission in 20 minutes. Dismissed." Her eyes flicked to the waiting Hyūga again. Shika sighed, but nodded, understanding the suggestion. Standing and walking over to one of the pale-eyed clan ninja, he quietly spoke up.

"Ahh, so if the Hyūga wanted to send along someone..." he started.

"That will be acceptable," the tall, quiet man said, not looking at Shikamaru. "There are ten clan ninja at chūnin to high-chūnin level available right now."

"Maa, that many is a little troublesome..." Shika whined, scratching his neck with one hand.

"We need to have at least three bodyguards for Uchiha-sama at all times. This is a firm requirement," the Hyūga interrupted, still standing stiffly and not looking at him.

"Fine, fine," Shikamaru said, his mind running over his options. "Give me the three ninja you have with the longest range Byakugan and have them meet us at the gates in 15 minutes. I need the other seven to gather up weapons, food, and medical supplies. Also find any available genin clan members with field medic training and follow behind us to provide support." The tall Hyūga responded with a nod of his head, then turned to talk to the rest of the clan members present. Shika noticed his forehead had a Leaf headband covering it to obscure the Hyūga's curse seal. All the Hyūga here were, of course, branch members.

Walking over to the Uchiha, Shika sighed yet again. This was going to suck. "Uchiha-san, I assume you-"

"I will be going," Sasuke interrupted. His spinning eyes swung like the upward blow of a sword, catching Shikamaru once again in his crushing killing intent. "It is not open to discussion."

"Yeah yeah, gates in 15 minutes," Shikamaru said with resignation. "What are you-" he started to ask.

"Uchiha clan summoning scrolls and a some sealing scrolls," Sasuke barked shortly. "Leave me. Now." Metal flashed as he cut himself with a kunai that moved so fast, it was almost invisible. The weapon disappeared almost as fast, then he proceeded to scribble a bloody signature on the scroll he'd been reading and then slap his fingerprints down in blood. Folding that one up, Sasuke placed it in a belt pouch then reached for another one from the table.

Walking quickly back out of the Hokage's office, Shikamaru went to the messenger center to get some help rounding up his team – well, less a team and more of a strike force. Time was important and it would be pointless to personally track down and talk to all of those people. Filling out the messenger forms and specifying the mission order number and priority for immediate approval, he had runners out finding his new strike force members in no time.

Shikamaru had selected the ninja but now he needed to get the equipment. Sighing again, he went to the storehouse to pull some requisition forms for weapons and explosives. For an A-rank like this, and with a strike force no less, his orders would authorize a truly staggering amount of material. And knowing one of the ninja who would be on his mission, he knew he'd need sealing scrolls and weapons. Lots and lots of weapons.

* * *

He'd been standing at the gates for five minutes before Shikamaru, his new "leader" for this mission, arrived. They were the only ones at the gate so far, except for the three Hyūga. Those silent men had taken up a loose and distant perimeter and were staring balefully at the gate guards, who didn't seem very happy with their presence.

"What a worthless and lazy person to have in charge of such an important task," Sasuke thought, looking at Shikamaru casually stroll toward him.

He'd heard about the Nara's "masterful" _defeat _at the hands of the Sand kunoichi, what was her name...Temari? He lost his fight, Sasuke won his (the Sand jinchūriki had run away, after all), yet the lazy son of a bitch got promoted. Totally unfair, but Sasuke was used to that by now. Someday they would recognize his true genius.

Why they trusted this idiot was beyond him. It didn't make sense, but Sasuke wasn't going to let the lazy bastard slow down his own attempts to rescue Hinata. He would use these people to get through any entrenched enemy resistance and then nothing could stop him. In the mean time, he'd keep an eye on Shikamaru. Sasuke wasn't stupid, he hadn't missed the Hokage essentially ordering Shikamaru to kill Hinata if they couldn't secure a rescue. Not going to happen. He'd quietly knife the foolish Nara in the back and call it an accident first. His hands clenched into fists at the mere thought of it.

The sleepy-eyed boy slouched up to where Sasuke was pacing back and forth and peered at him. Annoyed at the attention, Sasuke stopped walking and turned to stare back. After a moment, the pineapple-haired rookie chūnin spoke.

"I know you love her," Shikamaru said quietly.

Sasuke's heart seemed to stop beating and his whole body felt suddenly numb.

"What. Did. You. Say?" he growled through clenched teeth.

"Your wife-to-be? Hinata-san? I know it is an arranged marriage or whatever, sounds troublesome," Shikamaru said, looking disgusted, "but you obviously care about her a lot."

The boy pointed at his own chain mesh covered chest. "I've never seen you this agitated before and you just decided to kill me if I got in your way. You know what my orders mean and your body language was obvious." Sasuke simply stared at him like he was a three-inch-tall, bright purple demon that had sprung suddenly from the ground in front of him.

Shikamaru shrugged, then continued. "Also, everyone thinks I'm a lazy screw up, so you do as well. You're planning on how to do this on your own when I fail, because you care too much about her to let me get her killed. That's why I'm not going to even try to give you any orders during this strike mission. You wouldn't listen anyway and a good commander never gives an order they know won't be obeyed. Way too troublesome to deal with the paperwork when someone ignores an order in battle. I'll be closely commanding the rest of the strike force to complete our primary objective, but your _only __concern _is to stay with us and rescue Hinata-san." He tilted his head slightly and continued to stare at Sasuke's left foot.

"You love her, so you'll do it, no matter what. And so long as you are alive, I won't try to fulfill my primary objective by...other means. Because if I did, you'd kill me. I know that if you see a chance to get her back and get away, you'll take it. That is good enough for me."

The Nara's eyes finally met his...well, chin, but the lazy young genius obviously knew about the Sharingan's powers. Sasuke eyes hadn't stopped spinning with their strange power since he'd heard the news and, except for a fraction of a second in the Hokage's office, Shikamaru hadn't met them for even a moment. Smart. "Maybe there is something to the rumors of his unrivaled genius mind," Sasuke thought with an audible and derisive snort.

"Am I wrong?" Shikamaru said softly, watching Sasuke think.

"Just stay the hell out of my way," Sasuke said out loud. He turned away to stare down the wide, well-worn path outside the gate where it passed into the forest.

"Yeah yeah, fine," Shikamaru said slowly. Several footsteps were just now approaching them. "Thought you ought to know: according to the latest intelligence the Hokage handed me, Sakura-chan is currently in the field tracking the enemy forces. She has a locator tag on Hinata-san and has been following the kidnappers along with two Hyūga clan ninja since minutes after the kidnapping."

Sasuke whirled around to glare at Shikamaru once again. "Why the hell didn't you tell me sooner?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Thought you'd run off to follow the obvious trail she's making instead of waiting for a full strike force. That would get you killed, which would be really troublesome."

Sasuke growled something incomprehensible through his teeth as he suddenly bit his thumb. Kneeling, he went through a set of hand seals and slammed his palm into the ground. Black lines flew out from the point of impact. Shikamaru leaned forward in interest, obviously wondering what kind of powerful summon the Uchiha heir would use. Noticing his interest, Sasuke winced inside and buried his sudden feelings of shame deep. He would do whatever it took to complete this mission, whatever it took to save Hinata, even resorting to...this sort of technique.

In a puff of smoke, four small house cats appeared, sitting on their haunches facing Sasuke. One was a fat, stubby-faced tabby, one was large, really long, and pure white, and the other two were medium-sized, black furred, and looked like twins. They all had collars and a big, dull matte, two-colored metal tag around their neck in the shape of the Uchiha clan symbol, but otherwise looked like very normal, very wimpy house pets. Shikamaru almost fell forward in shock, actually stumbling before catching his balance again.

All of the cats were waiting attentively, their eyes on Sasuke. Grinding his teeth, he quickly gave the cat summons his orders. "Hinata has been kidnapped. Sakura is in pursuit and is marking a trail for us. Find Sakura's trail and follow. It should start at training ground #72 and head almost directly away from the village, following at least four enemy ninja. I will send other summons after you to report back to me. If you find Sakura, meet up with her and tell her who you are. Also tell her that a strike force is coming and that she is to stay safe and hidden until we arrive." When he finished, the long white one immediately said in a creepy, deep voice, "Yes, Uchiha-sama, we will obey."

"Go," the boy growled. The cats disappeared in a blur of motion, only the much more attentive gate guards and the Hyūga apparently able to track them now.

"Huh. That was unexpected, Uchiha-san," Shikamaru drawled.

"Shut. Up," Sasuke snarled while worrying his already-bleeding thumb so it was wet with blood again. He formed the summoning seals once more and then clapped his hands. Lines of black snaked back up his arms, then two black birds appeared on his shoulders in dual puffs of smoke. They were large, even for crows, and had a subtle, poisonous-looking green shine to their black feathers. Clacking their beaks at Sasuke in greeting, their claws kneaded his shoulders as they stared at him from both sides.

"Ahh," Shikamaru said, "a Carrion Crow summon as well."

"Quiet," Sasuke said, not even bothering to look at the annoying boy again. He turned to one of the birds. "Follow my cats to the prey. Stay out of sight, find Hinata, then one of you return to report while the other loiters on high watch."

Turning to the other, he continued, "Do not let the kidnappers escape with her. Do not allow yourselves to be detected. Go." The large birds briefly stared at him, tilting their heads to one side then the other to look at him with each of their eyes. Seeming to simultaneously agree to something, they both flapped their wings once and were then climbing unnaturally rapidly into the sky.

Sasuke looked up to see the entire strike force assembled and watching him. He blinked twice as Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Chōji, Ino, and Tenten stared back at him in shock. Shikamaru was leaning back and looking at the stars, not appearing to pay attention.

"Sweat birds, man!" Kiba yelled, throwing a thumbs up and grinning at him. Akamaru barked from his head. Ino let out a low, long squeal in the background, something like "so cute."

"Yeah, not bad, bastard," Naruto said, unable to contain his grinning. "About time you got a summoning contract. What was up with the kitty-cats, though?" Everyone else just stared.

"Shut up, idiot," Sasuke said automatically.

"Okay, quiet down," Shikamaru said, waving his hands. "We don't have much time, so gather around." The herd of genin and the three Hyūga chūnin joined him and Sasuke in a loose circle.

"Here is the deal: someone kidnapped Hinata Hyūga and we're going after them," Shikamaru said quickly. Everyone tensed up, even those who'd heard parts of Sasuke's conversation with the summons.

"Kiba, Shino couldn't make it?" Shikamaru asked.

"Nah, he's out on a mission with his father," Kiba replied.

"Fine. Listen up everyone," Shikamaru said, "I am the leader for this mission, but this isn't a team or even a collection of squads. This is a strike force. We have a specific objective, a large number of ninja, and we will be staying together as much as possible to achieve our objectives through focused teamwork.

"Sakura is currently in the field with two Hyūga clan ninja, tracking the kidnappers and marking a trail for us to follow. They'll either still be in motion when we catch up with Sakura or they'll have gone to ground and she'll be watching their location. Whatever the case, we will meet up with her and plan an attack." Shikamaru met their eyes (except for Sasuke) one by one, then knelt in the dust and continued.

"Traveling, we will move in a spread line formation for speed and vision. First row is Kiba, tracking Sakura and our foes by smell and sight, Saburu Hyūga, who has very good Byakugan range, and Sasuke, for his initial striking power. If you see the enemy, hit them hard immediately and then fade. Do not engage fully without full strike force support." Shikamaru started sketching out the positions in the dirt, the electric lights at the gate showing everyone what he was doing clearly enough.

"Second row is Chōji, Ino, and myself. We will be the heavy support, attempting to stun and lock down anything that isn't instantly killed by Sasuke and Kiba. We are well trained in these tactics and know how to work together, as this is our actual team configuration. In a pinch, they will keep any enemies off me long enough for me to get my head back into the game. I will maintain a wide view and attempt to manage the overall situation during travel with hand signals."

Tiny Sasuke and Kiba figures had been drawn in the dirt with lines facing forward. The little Sasuke had angry eyes and Kiba had dog ears instead of Akamaru on his head. The Hyūga was just a stick figure. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke would have sworn Saburu had frowned for a fraction of a second at that. Shikamaru, Chōji were drawn behind them with radiating "shadow" lines and large hands, respectively. Then he added Ino between them, with a huge, insane looking grin and weird wavy lines coming from her triangled hands. Ino frowned and glared at Shikamaru. He ignored her, most likely from long practice.

"Third row is Naruto, Tenten, and Takehiko Hyūga. They will be our ranged support: Tenten with massed thrown weaponry and Naruto with massed clones – which Tenten shouldn't care too much about hitting, by the way. Takehiko, who has the best taijutsu among the three chūnin Hyūga here today, will guard them from direct physical counterattacks and keep the enemy off them while they engage at distance. Takehiko will maintain a wide view during travel and focus on guarding Naruto and Tenten during battle. Naruto will keep a right watch and Tenten will keep a left watch during travel." He drew lines for where everyone was meant to be looking, with chibi figures of three Narutos and a strangely grinning Tenten with four knives in each hand.

"Naruto," he said, turning to the hideously orange-clad idiot, "I don't know how many clones you can make, but don't skimp early in the fight. I want as many as you can put into action without getting in other people's way. And no physically engaging yourself. Your staying back and continuing to make clones is very important in this fight. If you use them to get in the way of an enemy trying to hit your teammates, you could save lives. Also, you can quickly get anyone wounded out of the battle. Got it?"

"Maa, I don't like it, man, but I'll do it. Don't stop making clones, keep people safe, got it! This is all teamwork, am I right!?" Naruto suddenly yelled directly in Shikamaru's face.

"Ahh, right," Shikamaru said, hesitantly, rubbing his ear. "Moving on."

"The last row is Neji and Kenshin Hyūga. They will provide rear guard during travel, with Neji keeping his Byakugan off to save chakra and Kenshin only scanning occasionally. In battle, find any flanking enemy forces and engage them until support shows up. You will also be on the lookout for Hinata's location during combat and will support Sasuke in any direct actions to retrieve her. If these two objectives conflict, Neji will assist Sasuke above other objectives and Kenshin will cover." He drew the last figures and their sight lines, or rather bubble.

"Anyone we fight along the way, any ambushes or meeting engagements we get into, we hit fast and hard and break through, as a group, and then we move on. We are not taking enemy ninja prisoner. We know who kidnapped Hinata-san; they work for Orochimaru and they deserve to die. You will go for killing blows at all times. Every strike should be to remove an enemy from our path. We will go on no matter what. Anyone who is too wounded to continue will either fall back under their own power or be left behind with Kenshin, who will stabilize them and then catch up himself. Those left behind will either be hidden and collected when we return after completing our mission or will be rescued by a large medical and support team later today." The Hyūga, of course, didn't react to that. Sasuke's hands were tight fists again and everyone else was wide eyed, gasping in shock, looking worried, or some combination. Shikamaru quietly sighed again.

"Here is the information on the kidnappers from their earlier fights with Sasuke and during the kidnapping itself," he said, ignoring their reactions. He gave a folder to Chōji and continued. "Study it briefly and pass it along while I hand out equipment for this mission." At that, everyone started double-checking their packs. Shikamaru moved off and started talking to Tenten, passing her an armload of scrolls from his backpack that made her squeal in joy and hop around.

"Yet another annoying kunoichi," Sasuke thought grimly. "At least she isn't as bad as-"

"Saaasuke-kuuun," came a sickeningly sweat voice from behind him. Shit.

"Hn," he grunted, not turning around.

"Hey," Ino said in a breathy voice.

He said nothing in response.

"Saaasuke-kuuun? Hey? Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?"

He was silent, not bothering to answer such a stupid question or even look at her.

"We should go on a mission together sometime, Saaasuke-kuuun. Just you. And me," she continued, not apparently noticing his lack of comment.

"No," Sasuke said without inflection. She was silent for a while, which he was very glad for, then spoke up again hesitantly, dashing his hopes for quiet.

"Do you know...why did Sakura go out after them instead of staying to go with us, Sasuke-kun?" the annoying girl asked in a strange tone of voice.

"Because she was there when they kidnapped Hinata and she was acting like a responsible Leaf ninja for once. Do you understand what that means?" Sasuke said angrily, hoping to shame the stupid blond into silence.

"I, uhh," Ino started, sounding confused. "I mean, I'm sure she's just showing off." Regaining a smug tone, she continued.

"It isn't like I'm going to lose to her in tracking down these guys. Anyway, you could probably do this mission all by yourself, Sasuke-kun."

"You are annoying," he said more firmly, briefly turning around, grabbing the mission folder from Kiba, and shoving it into the blond moron's hands. "Shut up, read this, obey orders. That is it. Leave me alone," he said, then walked away from her to stand in front of the gates.

Shikamaru walked up to him a few moments later and said, "Ehh, I have to ask, I guess. Do you need any equipment?"

"No," Sasuke replied shortly, not turning around. His hands were clenching and unclenching, over and over. He took a deep breath and stilled them with an act of focused will. Taking out another scroll, he quickly opened it, letting it hang down to the ground. In another puff of smoke, a black-sheathed ninjatō popped into being. The wrapped grip and the sheath itself were pure black, richly decorated with dull black-on-black patterns worked into the leather. It had a set of unpolished bronze-colored medallions in the shape of the Uchiha clan symbol tied tightly to the middle of the length of the sheath, one on each side. Sasuke caught it with his right hand before it fell more than a fraction of an inch and quickly looped the carrying strap over his shoulder and head.

"We'll get her back," Shikamaru said softly, too quiet for the others to hear and without inflection.

"Yes, _I _will, do not doubt it," Sasuke snapped back, reaching down to grasp the end of the sheath low with his right hand and slowly drawing the foot and a half long sword over his left shoulder with his other. He then held it bare in his left hand and briefly stared at the blade. A hissing rope of lightning rolled down it from handle to tip, lighting up area in front of the open gates. He held the elemental release for a second then released it.

"I will not let him take this from me," Sasuke said. He wasn't even talking to Shikamaru anymore, but stood quietly facing the large forested road with the still sparking sword in his hand. He didn't see any of that, though, couldn't see anything but an image in his mind's eye.

It was from some time last week, just after a training session. A single fraction of a second. She'd looked around when he had said something to her as she was leaving. Hinata's back had been to him, the Uchiha symbol clearly visible on the thin silk gi. Her head was turned and her pale gray eyes were staring directly into his. No pity there, no drooling adoration. Just attentiveness to whatever he'd been saying. The entire scene was burned into his mind because he'd still had his Sharingan on, his bloodline ability storing away every detail perfectly. His eyes burned.

"Never again," he whispered to himself.


	18. Chapter 18

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note: **My Profile page now has a link to my new fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late. This one was very, very late. Next update still planned for this Sunday (the 17th).

The first discussion topic for the Secret Treasures part of the forum is: _A Harem, in my Sasu/Hina fic?!_

Head over to the forum to tell everyone what you think. Remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people. As always, thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

Hinata woke to the sound of irregular thuds and grunts. She was in the dark, held inside a small container with her arms and legs folded up in a loose fetal position. Realizing in an instant that she had been captured by enemy ninja and was likely headed toward a fate worse than death, her first instinct was to start flailing around. She barely contained herself, digging her short fingernails into her palms until she could feel the blood on them. Moving would alert them that she was awake and then they'd just knock her out again. She needed a plan. There weren't many options.

She could still end it. Maybe if she destroyed her own eyes, they'd just kill her. She knew all the things you weren't supposed to do with the Byakugan. She might be able to overload her chakra paths there or disable the blood flow to her eyes, given enough courage.

And there were other ways to die. She could try and detonate all her chakra internally or even attempt to cut her own heart in half. A jūken blow to the head could be as strong as a kunai, if she had enough power behind it. There were options. She just had to have the guts to execute one of many possible suicide plans.

But she wasn't ready for that yet, or maybe she was just a coward, and she felt she needed more information. Remaining still and relaxed was hard, but any shifting might be detected by her captors. Flicking her eyes on and off quickly, she saw the girl, Tayuya, carrying her in a small bucket or barrel, and the other three ninja hopping along beside her from tree to tree.

Paying attention to what she remembered from the short glance about the container, she recalled several large sealing tags keeping it closed and ready to absorb any chakra she tried to use to escape. Any chakra from jutsu (including Jūken strikes) targeted at the insides of the barrel would simply be sucked into the tags, leaving the thick wooden sides untouched. There were also chakra _draining_ tags, meant to pull the chakra right out of her body as long as she was stuffed inside, keeping her weak and on the edge of consciousness.

They had made a big mistake, however. The tags were aggressive, a quick and dirty way to deprive a ninja of chakra, but they needed to be dosed out correctly, like medicine, or they would quickly kill the target instead of leaving them weakened and vulnerable. Hinata concluded she was simply significantly stronger than they expected, even after her attempt to escape from their ambush. The tags had left her weak but not helpless, and hadn't kept her unconscious. Maybe they planned on checking on her later in case they had put on too many, but they hadn't planned on the opposite problem and her waking up so soon.

Instead of the dose that a strong, low-to-mid chūnin-level taijutsu expert warranted, they had most likely given her a high-genin genjutsu specialist or med-nin's dose, simply because she was a girl. Someone like that would have overall reserves on the high-side because of the mental discipline involved, but only low chakra recovery times because of poor physical stamina. Hinata didn't have unnaturally huge reserves, it was true, but she was very, very fit, which affected chakra recovery rates greatly.

This was good. She was thinking clearly again. She'd almost given up, but there had still been that icy calm part of her mind that helped steady her. She could do this. She took a deep breath. Being in her worst possible imagined situation, she found, brought clarity to her mind she didn't normally have.

Now she realized that her being conscious can't have been something her captors expected or planned for. Maybe she could still escape, or at least die fighting. Slowly rubbing her arms and legs to get her circulation working again, she froze as her right hand hit her tantō, still strapped to her left arm. Feeling around her waist, she realized she'd seen every piece of equipment still in place before with her Byakugan. They hadn't even bothered to strip her of weapons. They must truly think she was weak. They would pay for that mistake.

Visualizing again how she was being held, but still keeping her eyes off, she slowly, oh so carefully drew her huge combat knife. Placing her right palm flat on the end of the handle and holding it with the other, she lined it up with a seam in the barrel, pointed at the stupid, foul-mouthed girl's torso. The enemy kunoichi had had her arms wrapped around the barrel she was carrying, so her chest and stomach were right next to this side and totally unprotected. Hinata wanted to go for a killing heart strike, but was afraid she'd scrape a rib and miss entirely if she wasn't careful. Going through the side of the barrel made it too risky. She'd just have to go for a gut wound and hope it was damaging enough to give her time to bash open her wooden prison.

Closing her eyes, her hand still loosely wrapped around the knife handle, Hinata sank into the same meditative state she'd used before practices with Sasuke-san. It was just like an exercise. "Train like you are in battle, then battle like you are in training," Sasuke-san had said once. Except that if she died here, she wouldn't be resetting the chakra illusion and trying again. But if she died, so be it. Nothing much would be lost. Maybe her sister would cry for her, perhaps her teammates and teacher would morn. That thought troubled her briefly, but she quickly let it drift off and found her mind clear once again. They would not take her: her pride as a Hyūga and a Leaf ninja would not allow it – her personal fears were irrelevant to her duty.

Every muscle in her arms, shoulders, and back lined up perfectly, loose but ready. Her elbow was aimed like a driving piston against the handle of the knife. She braced her feet against the bottom corner of the barrel for more power, then mentally reviewed the location of her smoke bombs on her belt. Breath in. Breath out thrust the knife with every ounce of strength and chakra available, hit it again, widen the crack, strike again and turn and kick and free.

There was blood everywhere and screaming and it wasn't hers so it didn't matter and her eyes were on again and she could see everything once more.

* * *

Sakura had met up with the Hyūga clan ninja moments after she'd set off after the kidnappers. She'd quickly filled them in while continuing to track her target, hoping from tree to tree while they stared straight ahead with their eyes blazing, chakra bulging through veins across the entire sides of their faces.

"Understood," said the tall, dark-haired Hyūga branch member next to her. He made some hand signals to the others, who ran ahead to the left and right of their current heading. "Continue tracking the target while we look for traps and ambushes. It is of critical importance that you do not lose the signal." Too nervous to answer out loud, Sakura simply nodded her head. The tall man sped up and took a forward position in front of her, obviously using his Byakugan to follow her from in front. Sakura was trying to keep Hinata's kidnappers slightly to the left of her current direction of travel, hoping that would help them avoid any traps the enemy left behind.

After an exhausting hour of high-speed travel, Sakura noticed the signal shifting direction significantly, indicating the target had slowed, stopped, or started moving more directly away from her. The distance measuring was almost non-existent, so she'd have to circle around and carefully get another reading. If they had stopped, she'd need to get closer to see what the situation was.

After getting in front of the enemy ninja force's previous direction of travel, she discovered the indicated direction suggested they had in fact stopped. Waving the Hyūga shinobi over, she quickly explained the situation and they started slowly closing in on the enemy location.

What they found a minute later was a war zone. There were broken trees, a huge crater in the ground, broken wooden bits scattered around, and blood all over the place. Hinata was lying on the ground, covered in blood, hogtied with thick chains, and covered in some kind of fūinjutsu tags. A large one was wrapped around her head and covered her eyes. She wasn't moving, but was thankfully still wearing the tagged coat.

One of the enemy ninja, the tall fat one, was rolling up what looked like storage scrolls, while the other three were bandaging minor injuries on their limbs and bodies. The girl with messy, dark pink hair poking out from under a really ugly headband finished wrapping meters of white cloth around her middle, covering what must have been a huge gut wound. She then stomped over to where Hinata lay. Grabbing her by the neck, the enemy kunoichi pulled the bound girl off the ground and glared into her blindfolded face.

"Oh, that is the last fucking straw, whorebitch!" the girl screamed at Hinata, shaking her violently by the neck. "Stab me in the fucking uterus will you, you cunt?! Eat shit and die! I'm giving you some of your own fucking medicine now!"

The furious kunoichi drew back a fist and slammed it into Hinata's left breast like a sledgehammer. The blow rang out like a gong as Hinata spun in the air and flew back into a tree, hitting it like a bag of sand. She then fell to the ground again, still motionless. The ugly-haired foul-mouth screamed in pain, clutching her clearly broken hand.

"ARGH!" she screamed. "THE CUNT'S GOT ARMORED TITS!? WHAT THE FUCK!"

The Hyūga didn't allow the enemy kunoichi any more time for foul-mouthed rants, springing into action immediately. The tall one who'd talked to Sakura before motioned for her to remain hidden before jumping off to join in the attack. Sakura hunkered down and tried to suppress her meager chakra as far as possible, hoping the enemy didn't have a strong Sensor on their team.

Faster than she could follow with her eyes, the pale enemy shinobi with the backpack was in motion and kicking one of the Hyūga into the treeline, the strange marks crawling all over his skin again. The huge man joined in, his skin also covered in curse marks, his punches breaking the ground with every strike, driving the second Hyūga away from Hinata. The third Hyūga was quickly pinned to a tree with a huge blast of sticky webbing from the one with extra arms.

While the fight was going on, the kunoichi grabbed Hinata's chains with her unbroken hand and threw her over her shoulder. "I'm getting the fuck out of here," she screamed, "catch up when you're done." She then flashed away at full speed carrying Hinata on her back.

Sakura could clearly see she didn't stand a chance against even one of the enemy shinobi who were left. Two of the Hyūga had already been disabled and the third was soon unconscious on the ground. Without a word, the three enemy shinobi jumped into the trees and dashed after their companion. Sakura took a deep breath and jumped down to try and help the Hyūga.

She soon found the webbing wouldn't cut, and had to practically knock down the tree to free the tall leader of the Hyūga forces. As for the other two, one of them was lying on his face in the clearing with obvious broken bones in his face and ribs. He was unconscious but stable. The one who'd been kicked into the trees had a broken leg but was otherwise healthy. Unfortunately, their leader had broken his arm when he'd been stuck to the tree.

"I am healthy enough to go on," he said, when Sakura tried to insist he stay behind. "It was my mistake to think we could take them on by ourselves. Hopefully, there is another team of chūnin and jōnin following behind us. We can still follow the enemy and stay hidden."

Just as she was about to answer, a blur of motion caught her attention. Suddenly, there were four furry shapes in the clearing with her. Two identical-looking black cats were now sniffing at the spilled blood, one fat one was pacing around where the two most severely hurt Hyūga lay. The fourth and largest, a huge white cat much longer than the rest, sat next to where the Hyūga squad leader and Sakura stood.

"Ah, Uchiha-neko," the Hyūga said, nearly frowning in displeasure.

"Yes, Hyūga-san. Uchiha-neko are of the Uchiha, whose newest member you now hunt," the tall white cat said. Sakura saw he indeed had their clan symbol hanging from his neck. "We were tasked with finding Haruno-san and reporting the supporting force composition, then joining her in the hunt." The cat summons them told them the details of the strike force.

After hearing who was being sent on the rescue mission, the stoic Hyūga squad leader was enraged (he almost frowned for a moment and his forehead crinkled a little), but he quickly got a handle on his emotional outburst and turned to Sakura.

"You must go now. Take the Uchiha-neko and move as fast as possible. The enemy knows they were followed closely now, so they'll be moving at full speed. I will just slow you down." Turning to the cats with a grim look, he said, "Neko-san, please send someone to Uchiha-sama to tell him of this fight. The rest of you need to directly support Haruno-san. Keep following the enemy at a distance, do not engage, and support the strike team when they arrive. Good luck, Haruno-san."

"Y-yes, Hyūga-san. And...thank you," Sakura said. She then jumped into the tress and dashed off after the kidnappers at full speed, her legs once again burning with the ache of both abused muscles and overuse of chakra. Far above, a pair of crows circled once, then took off in the same direction.

* * *

The trail was easy to follow. After an hour of running they had passed the reported location of the Hyūga fight, not delaying their chase by stopping. His cats had said the enemy was hurt but Sasuke wasn't confident that the injuries they had would last long. The dark chakra and strange curse seal it came from did strange things to the body, so he would assume they would all be healthy again. He said as much to Shikamaru.

"Troublesome," was all he heard in reply.

The black cat summons, one of the two twins, had been the one to rejoin them to report and was running alongside Sasuke at the front of the formation. He could feel the drain from keeping both the summons and his eyes up, but it was nothing to someone like him. He could handle it, he had plenty of chakra left. In any case, he had a small bottle of soldier pills if it came to that.

"Sakura," Kiba snarled suddenly. Akamaru barked once in agreement from his shirt.

Adjusting their path sightly, they soon caught up with the exhausted pink-haired kunoichi and the three cats running alongside her. She fell into line next to Sasuke as Shikamaru also came forward to listen. The four cats spread out around them, also in the lead.

"Sasuke-kun," she panted, almost slipping as she continued to hop from branch to branch, "they still have Hinata, a kilometer ahead of our current location and about two dozen meters to our left, same heading as us."

"Bothersome bit of tracking, Sakura. Good job," Shikamaru said.

"Where could they be heading?" Sasuke asked abruptly.

"Hmm. Maybe the cliffs around the Valley of the End?" Shikamaru suggested. "There are some cave systems there that one could really bunker down into. That would mean they were expecting support to arrive at some point, though. Otherwise, that would just be a trap for them. They have to know we'd catch up, being fresher and knowing the area better." Shikamaru thought for another minute.

"No," he said. "There is a trap planned earlier. Maybe with support, maybe without. We know Orochimaru has a small village worth of ninja at his command, some of them showed up at the Chūnin Exam invasion. These four were just his elite commandos. We should expect an ambush in an open area, maybe a clearing or where it turns to grassland around the hills before the Valley."

"Expect them to try to split-up our forces, Sasuke," he said to the black-haired boy who was still staring straight ahead, "You might have to fight alone for a bit. Don't overextend yourself – it could be troublesome."

"Don't worry about me, weakling," Sasuke snarled, "Just stay out of my way and keep the more pathetic enemy forces busy."

"The spider guy and the one with too much eye makeup sound like they're long and short range heavy hitters, respectively," Shikamaru added, ignoring Sasuke's comment. "I'll try to at least double-team them. Everyone should look out if they hit whatever 'level 2' is. It will likely be a power increase, but such things usually have major weaknesses or they would use them all the time. It could be troublesome if we get surprised by new abilities, though."

"Hn," Sasuke replied. Shikamaru fell back to his place in line while Sasuke and Sakura continued on in silence.

"It...it is good to see you again, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear.

"Hn," he said in response, then added harshly, "You tracked them down well, Sakura. But do not get in my way once the fight starts."

"Oh, of c-course, Sasuke-kun," she said quickly.

"Fall to the back of the formation and stay out of the fight," Sasuke said. He then turned and stared at her with his still spinning Sharingan. "These foes are beyond you. If you screw up, you will die."

* * *

Sakura quickly obeyed and dropped back to where Neji and another Hyūga were working rear guard. They ignored her, but she was glowing inside and didn't care.

She had done well! He had said so! And Sasuke-kun didn't want her to get hurt and was protecting her by telling her to keep back! He had even looked at her and recognized her hard work. A small part of her was yelling inside her head that no one needed to protect the Great Sakura Haruno ("HELL NO!") but she ignored that and simply basked in thought of Sasuke-kun's approval.

Looking up ahead, they were about to enter a large clearing in the woods.

Maybe this was True Love after all, she thought. She'd have to keep looking for a way to get Hiashi to allow her to-

Then everything seemed to explode at the same time and things got very, very busy.


	19. Chapter 19

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note: **My Profile page has a link to my new fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

Late this week with a huge chapter. Record for largest chapter yet in Secret Treasures. Enjoy. Hopefully next week I'll be back on track with my schedule.

I thought this would be the end of the "Rescue Hinata" arc, but that will be Chapter Twenty it seems. Got some deep changes to canon coming in the 20s. Only four months in the timeline until the next Chūnin Exams. Maybe Sasuke can actually get promoted to chūnin this time.

Next update planned for Sunday, Feb. 24. Thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

Sasuke drove the unpowered chakra blade through the back of a third anonymous Sound ninja with a reverse-grip thrust behind him as he ran past. Something in their chest went "snish-crunch" and they died. It was getting old now.

He had jumped ahead the second he saw the chakra pulse triggering the explosive tags, avoiding the entire explosion and making his first ever kill. The lead Sound ninja that had attacked into the cloud of flying debris, less than a second after dozens of explosive tags had gone off, died without any clue what was happening to him. His head was suddenly missing from his body and both were falling to the forest floor. Sasuke didn't take special notice of his first ever kill or particularly care. He had only one goal and he couldn't yet see her. The fate of enemy ninja or the rest of the Leaf strike force didn't even cross his mind as he pushed ahead.

The second Sound shinobi had lost the arm carrying his kunai with an invisibly fast sword strike and had been kicked into a tree so hard he left a shattered wooden dent – or at least that was what Sasuke's Sharingan was predicting was going to happen in two tenths of a second when he eventually landed.

Finally entering the clearing, he could see the original four Sound ninja, gathered around-

His eyes blazing with hate, he immediately flew through some seals, raised a hand to his mouth, and fired off an oversized tongue of flame. It impacted mere feet in front of the Sound ninja, close enough to catch everyone in the edge of the blast but Hinata, who was lying tied in chains on the ground a few feet behind them.

Sasuke then threw over twenty kunai through the flames, firing them carefully one by one. They were aimed around where he calculated his opponents would be, but not at any specific targets. He then took out a final kunai, made a threading motion with his off-hand at the ringed handle, then whipped it in front of him in a large windup and threw it, aimed just in front of where the spider-armed ninja, Kidōmaru, had been standing.

Producing three regular Bunshin, Sasuke directed them to run different attack approaches, with one leaping over the flames and the other two running around, one on each side. He simply charged forward through the edges of the now-dissipating flames, holding his breath, closing his eyes, and taking minor burns on his crossed arms as he headed straight for Hinata. When he cleared the smoky cloud, he could see two of the Bunshin already being attacked by two of the Sound shinobi. Kidōmaru was looking up and firing webbing at his third clone above. But the girl, Tayuya, was already running with Hinata – her curse seal, like everyone else's, at level one, crawling black marks covering the Sound ninja's skin.

"Fuck!" she screamed. "No time for the cage barrier! He's coming right for me! Cover me, you shitheads! Kidōmaru!"

Her other two teammates started to move away from the Bunshin distractions, which Sasuke immediately canceled, but they were slow. Far too slow. Kidōmaru was also no longer distracted and trying to hit an illusion and now attempted to intercept Sasuke. He was holding a strange knife in each of his six hands, each one made out of some goopy looking tree sap stuff, but sharpened to a razor edge.

Sasuke dashed forward relentlessly, his eyes only on the retreating kunoichi and Hinata's bound form. He dodged an attempt to web his feet to the ground almost without looking and then was locked into combat with the spidery shinobi. His sword flashed and skidded along the whirling guard of his opponent but Kidōmaru's knives also couldn't seem to find Sasuke's body. Every swing was already dodged before it began and every thrust was in invitation to a counterstrike to his arms.

Realizing he was running out of time – Tayuya was getting away and the other two were almost on top of him – Sasuke moved to disengage Kidōmaru. His plan now was simple. He could see it unfold in front of him even as he sprang into action: use his Raiton release and chakra-ninjatō to lock blades with Kidōmaru in a strong and electrified frontal slash (two knifes blocked that, as planned – his foe's muscles were starting to slow and seize up), stab at him from an odd angle with a quickly drawn kunai using his right hand (four knifes occupied), then follow that by spinning in the air, levering off of the two parried blades to aim a lightning fast right-footed faint kick at his foe's head that never connected but would have to be accounted for (six knifes!). This left Kidōmaru's hands busy, his muscles in horrible pain, and Sasuke sideways and upside-down, all his weapons twisted and locked up by Kidōmaru's. Exactly how he'd planned it.

He used his momentum and the leverage of his opponent's stupid entrance into the complicated corps à corps to find the opening. The dark-haired genius snapped his hips to one side in mid-air and side-kicked Kidōmaru's in the chest at full strength with his remaining limb (left foot), knocking the enemy shinobi off his feet and ten meters away to skid along the ground on his back. Sasuke landed square on his feet after a brief, tight somersault. Four of Kidōmaru's knives span uselessly through the air as Sasuke casually flicked them away with his sword and kunai.

"Just pathetic," Sasuke thought, looking at the sprawling shinobi. If this was the level of skill of his opponents in close combat, he could have done this on his own. But the other one, their pale leader, was a close-ranged specialist if Shikamaru was correct. No reason to play to his strengths, Sasuke considered, flipping over his kunai in his hand, readying for throwing. Just then the other two were upon him, exactly when he'd predicted.

The fat one tried to grab him, but Sasuke could see that coming a mile away and easily dodged without looking – almost directly into the other's spin kick. Which Sasuke avoided by ducking low and throwing the kunai straight up at the Sound shinobi's head from less than two feet away. The pale man back-flipped away to avoid the flying blade, taking him back out of range. The spider shinobi, Kidōmaru, was now on his feet again and charging. Sasuke shunshined beside him and swiped at him with a spinning kick which was blocked with three arms, but the force of the blow sent his foe back several paces.

Then the fat one, "Jirōbō" Sasuke thought his name was, was on him again, trying to pound him into the ground from behind. Sasuke flicked his eyes back and saw the attack, then walked back _into_ it – barely avoiding getting crushed but getting inside the large man's reach. Sasuke hopped over a snap earth technique that was trying to lock him into a dome on the ground, then he casually tossed his ninjatō lightly into the air, grabbed a shocked Jirōbō by the belt and one arm, and hip-threw him to one side, straight at his pale teammate, all in one blazingly fast, smooth motion.

His teammate dodged him at the last second and the large man grunted at his hard fall, but quickly hopped back to his feet. Just in time to see Sasuke catch his sword out of the air and immediately stop-thrust straight at the pale Sound ninja who'd been trying to close with him again. "Sakon!" Jirōbō yelled in warning to his teammate.

The clipped point of Sasuke's sword seemed drawn naturally forward, like a magnet was attached to his foe's nose. Sakon barely dove over the attack, the tip of the blade passing inches from his eyes and face. He soared and rolled in the air over Sasuke to land on his other side, again barely avoiding three more fast slashes from the dark-haired boy's blade. Aborting the second attempt to close, Sakon hopped back several steps then stopped and sneered at Sasuke. Kidōmaru standing back and drawing out some kind of bow-shaped thing from his mouth, obviously the source of the goopy blades. Gross.

Sasuke eyed the three enemy shinobi carefully but they weren't meeting his gaze directly. They'd learned something, it seemed. But not enough. They had him surrounded, trapped in a flat triangle with one for forward, left, and right – just where he wanted them.

"Give up, trash," Sakon said, mocking him. "You can't beat us, even at level one release. Join us now and take this power for your own. You can't save anyone with your current strength. I'm sure by now that whore of yours-"

Sasuke suddenly flipped his ninjatō over and stabbed it straight down into the ground. His sword had intersected a bunched set of wires attached to the single kunai he'd thrown at Kidōmaru earlier, the knife having embedded itself in the soft ground past the hilt, hiding the ninja wire bundle. Gripping the metal threaded handle of his chakra sword with both hands, he focused all of his strength and chakra, then whispered through gritted teeth, "Raiton."

All of the conductive ninja wire trailing the two dozen kunai he'd thrown earlier glowed as roaring bolts of lightning raced down the sword and down the fan-shaped metal web he'd made of this area of the battlefield. The blue chakra-enhanced electricity instantaneously sought out and struck all three Sound ninja, knocking them back through the air with a crack of power. Sasuke rapidly reached into his belt pouch and threw an explosive tag wrapped kunai after each one of them.

Slumping slightly to lean on his sword, Sasuke took a single deep breath. The tags then exploded, but he saw out of the corners of his eye that the Sound shinobi had all thrown themselves barely out of range of the blast at the last second. Whatever, they didn't matter any longer.

Straightening again, he pull his ninjatō from the ground and flicked the dirt from it in a single motion, but he did not sheath it yet. He'd not put away his blade until Hinata was freed and his foes lay dead at his feet. Bringing a single hand into a focusing seal, Sasuke shunshined at full speed into the trees in the direction the Sound kunoichi had fled.

* * *

The three Sound shinobi were shakily picking themselves up off the ground just as a roaring battle cry echoed through the clearing and several hundred orange shapes blotted out the sun.

"Shit," Sakon said as kunai started flying between the orange shapes like rain. Just then, he realized he couldn't move his body. He flicked his eyes down to look at his feet only to see a dark patch running from one of the orange clone's shadows to his own. Then his head suddenly moved side to side on its own, like he was clearing a kink from his neck.

"Taijutsu Specialist Disabling Technique complete," a lazy voice said from the treeline. "Take him down from range, Tenten. Ino, Chōji, pick off the multi-armed ranged specialist with Naruto's help. Kiba, keep the brute busy with more Naruto clones. Go all out if you have to. Shouldn't be too troublesome. The Hyūga clan ninja will keep the remaining Sound ninja engaged."

Behind a tree at the edge of the clearing, Shikamaru sighed. Holding his technique by reinforcing his focus with one hand seal, he used the other to reach out and grab an orange blur that was passing by him.

"Eh, Naruto," Shikamaru started to say.

"AH!" screamed the orange menace's clone, starting to try and struggle free.

"Hey hey, calm down," Shikamaru drawled. "Do you know where Sakura and Neji are? I saw Sasuke run on ahead, but..."

"Thank Kami it's just you, Shika!" the clone shouted directly at his face. "No, no, I haven't seen Sakura-chan since the ambush and Neji-baaaka just ran after that bastard Sasuke by himself. Gotta go now, orders from the boss! Sorry!" Wriggling out of his grip, the clone ran into the fight with the rest of them, crowding around the vastly outnumbered Sound ninja in the clearing and constantly pressing forward.

"Tsk!" Shikamaru said to himself. "Don't split the team. The first thing I said. Now it gets troublesome."

* * *

A crow dive-bombed Sasuke as he hopped quickly through the trees. Flaring and flapping frantically at the last second it landed softly on his shoulder, gripping hard with its claws. Putting its beak to his ear as Sasuke continued to run at full speed through the forest, it seemed to whisper something, then took off again. Frowning, the dark-haired shinobi reached inside himself and found a bit more strength, a bit more power, urgently trying to catch up to Hinata's captor. His curse seal burned, but he continued to ignore it. That false power would only slow him down.

He'd left the three other Sound kidnappers and their random low-chūnin-level backup behind for the rest of the Leaf strike force to handle. His objective was clear and he wouldn't be delayed waiting for weaklings to catch up. Anyway, it was just Tayuya left to take out. Her taijutsu seemed weak and she might still be hurt from before when she fought Hinata. The four Sound ninja had a plan for that ambush but it clearly hadn't worked. Too bad for them; now it was his turn. He figured he could take her in a straight fight, but he wasn't planning on it being one – stabbing her in the back would be his method of choice in ending this annoying chase.

Sasuke carefully considered his next strategy as he ran, checked his remaining resources. He still had a pouch filled with shuriken, a couple of dozen kunai in assorted pouches, a bit of ninja wire, chakra pills, and a thick wad of explosive notes. The cat summons were spread out beside him running at full speed. Originally, they had been looking for disguised trails and traps. Now, they were simply trying to keep up. The summons weren't any good for a fight, but they made sure Tayuya couldn't pull anything tricky and disappear. The crow summon had just said that Tayuya and Hinata were just up ahead and about to exit the forest. A likely spot for another ambush.

So Sasuke went around. Creating a Bunshin to run straight forward this time, he motioned the cat summons to remain with his decoy until the last moment. He looped around the right side, moving slower to maintain stealth. He planned to hit whatever the likely ambush was from the side, seconds after it was sprung.

Sure enough, an explosion, three loud thuds, and a high sort of musical whistling noise followed his clone's exit from the trees. Sasuke shunshined into view at the edge of the trees, ready to engage his opponent again. What he saw made him pause for a critical second. Tayuya had a flute to her lips and was apparently playing it. She now had a strange bony crown made of horns and dark skin, which Sasuke assumed was level two of her curse seal unlocked.

In front of her, most odd of all, three giants wrapped in bandages and covered in spikes were attacking Sasuke's Bunshin, obviously with no success. He assumed the giants were summons; nothing normal looked like that. Hinata lay on the ground behind the Sound kunoichi, still wrapped in chains. He was about to leap into battle again when his enemy noticed him.

"Fuck!" she yelled. Tucking the flute under one arm, she quickly threw five seal tags around Hinata in a pentagram shape. Sasuke froze, unwilling to provoke an attack, plotting furiously how to free Hinata if they were explosives. It was just a little too far to shunshin in time. But before he could figure out what to do, Tayuya made a long series of hand seals incredibly rapidly and a dull blue dome came out of the paper tags and covered Hinata's body.

"Sakon, where the fucking fuck are you?" she shouted at the top of her lungs, starting to bring her flute to her lips again. A man with bleached-looking white hair and a white cotton robe materialized silently behind her and draped an arm over her shoulder in a familiar way. She froze instantly, horror on her face.

"Tayuya-chan," the man said softly, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear, "your team failed to trap the target at point Charlie. You couldn't even hold out long enough for me to arrive. Now, where are the other three of those who were once five?" The tall man pushed back his long white hair with one hand, tucking it behind his ear.

"Ki-Kimimaro-sama," she stammered, body frozen in place, "we c-couldn't, my hand was b-broken and I h-had t-to, I m-mean I-I, w-why are you...h-how is your body...?"

The one she'd called Kimimaro had a curse seal visible on the top of his chest, a spiral with three curves, and two red dots on his forehead instead of eyebrows, like some ancient noble. "This is my will alone," he said, staring at Sasuke for a quiet moment.

"My body is already too far gone," he continued quietly, "but now...I can see the edges of Orochimaru's dream: life through continued force of will. So I will retrieve this important 'vessel' for Master's dream, to complete his ultimate plan." Kimimaro turned to stare at Tayuya, his arm still around her shoulder.

"The reason I haven't killed you yet for your failure is that you have a mission left to accomplish. I will show this trash how pitiable he is by making him watch the results of his weakness. Maybe then he will have the courage to accept Master's gift. If he accepts, you will set him on the path to the next stage of the Cursed Seal of Heaven. For now, stay back and keep the Hyūga whore safe."

Sasuke's grip on the ninjatō tightened, then he thrust it into the ground in front of him. In a blur of motion, both his hands were filled with kunai, the blades poking between his fingers. Thick wads of explosive tags were wrapped around their handles. The air shimmered as he and ten Bunshin clones jumped in multiple directions, all wielding handfuls of blades.

Kimimaro smirked and dashed forward to meet the attack, spears made of bone punching though his palms. Sasuke's clones weaved into a complicated pattern, some throwing kunai into the ground in front of the charging shinobi and others firing the kunai seemingly at random. Most blades were illusions, but some were real, landing with solid thunks. Then Sasuke started targeting his own kunai with shuriken and other kunai. Some had wires attached, most were illusions from the Bunshin, and all danced into a confusing rain of weapons. Some kunai were flying sideways and others approaching from directly behind him by the time Kimimaro intersected their flight paths.

Kimimaro spun as he ran, knocking some physical blades aside only to find them arching back at him because of wires or other knives hitting them again in midair. Several times he went to block something that was just an illusion. Many kunai hit the ground around him and several struck him directly, causing the white-haired ninja to instantly slam to a halt.

Sasuke and every one of his Bunshin immediately made a single hand seal. Kimimaro crossed his arms in front of his face as if to block an attack a fraction of a second before the battlefield exploded in fire. The concussion from the blast dispelled all of Sasuke's Bunshin and made Tayuya shield her eyes and crouch against the flying debris.

Where Kimimaro had been standing there was a smoky crater. Sasuke was still falling, knocked off course from his initial leap by the blast. He rotated quickly in the air to keep the location in view, then took a deep breath and made a series of seals, put his hand to his lips, and exhaled an inferno. A dozen large fireballs spat through the still smoky air and slammed into the hazy broken earth where Kimimaro had been standing, searing the ground and sending up smoking bits of grass and dirt.

The blazing barrage ended as Sasuke back-flipped through the air from the recoil of his jutsu. He landed directly next to his sword again, slightly out of breath but his eyes still spinning with the Sharingan. Still not looking away from the crater, he pulled the ninjatō out of the ground with one hand and reached into a pouch with the other. He popped the chakra pill he pulled out into his mouth then gritted his teeth as the medicine released inside him and burned, a knot of flames in his stomach. He welcome the pain and the chakra that came with it. He knew there was no way he had killed the strangely confident Sound shinobi that easily.

Sure enough, a series of soft "fft" sounds filled the air as eight bone projectiles whizzed through the air straight at him from out of the smoke. He barely had time to dodge, some of the shots bouncing off his sword which he used like an impossibly thin shield. None hit him, though – his eyes still saw clearly.

Then Kimimaro was charging straight at him in a flash, an angular set of cursed marks covering his bare, terribly scorched torso. His Yin-Yang loincloth and tattered ninja shoes were the only clothes not burned or blasted off his body. His hair was blacked and scorched as well, only random clumps remaining. Most horrible of all, his skin was pealing away from an apparently subcutaneous layer of bone that must have been all that saved the Sound shinobi from death. The skin was slowly knitting over the exposed bones, crawling back into place in a bloody lacework.

Just before Kimimaro's bone spear hands reached him, Sasuke wondered if he was ever going to fight anyone who wasn't a monster. He was having flashbacks to the impossible fight against Gaara...and his eventual loss against the Sand horror. But there wasn't time to reminisce – his foe was upon him and he was fighting for his life once again.

One spear went straight for his heart but Sasuke saw it coming and easily batted it to one side with his sword, but then there was another strike and another. He was surviving using a set of rapid, retreating parries but this wasn't a way to win a battle. Sasuke cursed his lack of training. He could kill someone quickly and cleanly with the ninjatō, sure, but not really duel a skilled opponent for very long. Every lightning fast thrust of bone was aimed to cripple or (maybe) kill him and he could only stay alive by running and dodging, leaving no time for a counterstrike.

"What a powerful attack," Kimimaro said calmly, continuing to try and run him through with the bones projecting from his hands. "Explosives and Katon together." A strike went through where Sasuke's head was a fraction of a second ago. "I couldn't move out of the way fast enough. If I didn't have these bone shields under by skin, I would have been killed a dozen times over. I was underestimating you...that attack will not work a second time."

Sasuke's eyes burned. He just couldn't keep up. At this range, he was barely able to dodge the bones shots that repeatedly fired from his enemy's fingers in the middle of other moves. Those were tough to spot as the chakra required for that move was almost entirely internal. The dark-haired genius twisted around, dancing through a series of dodges to keep the tips of Kimimaro's fingers from forming an intersecting vector with his body.

Then finally it happened, an opening from his unnaturally calm foe after an overextended double-palm spear thrust. Sasuke charged his sword with lightning chakra in an instant while thrusting the blade straight at his opponent's heart. The rapidly vibrating blade would split Kimimaro's chest like a melon and leave him twitching in pain for his last seconds of life.

But Sasuke's grim glee at finding and exploiting the opportunity was short lived, as his blade bit no more than skin-deep and then skidded off internal bone plates, leaving a deep gouge in Kimimaro's sickening built-in armor. Sasuke froze for a critical second at the failure of his attack and simply stared as lightning flickered over his foe's skin, grounding seemingly without effect into the broken earth under his enemy's feet. But instead of running him through for his inattention, Kimimaro simply smirked back.

"My bones are as hard as steel," he said, smiling tightly at Sasuke. "A perfect defense against any blade. My bone plates also insulate me enough to neutralize your pathetic Raiton attacks. Do you see now? You can't win. Nothing your sad little village could teach you would equal even this level of my power. Join my Master and you will exceed even my abilities. As you serve him, so shall he fulfill your ambitions." Sasuke jerked back and skidded several steps away, bringing his sword back up into a guard position.

"Oh yes, he knows of your brother. And other secrets of your clan that the weak sheep of Konoha would keep from you. Join us, take your rightful place at my Master's side." Kimimaro reached out his right hand, the bone spears on both of his hands slowly retracting. Sasuke stared at him, then dropped the point of his sword and took a step forward.

"Does...does Orochimaru really know about my brother?" he asked in a shaking voice.

"And...and he'd help me...help me kill him?" Sasuke asked in confused wonder, still slowly pacing forward.

"Yes, Uchiha-sama. You will be his right hand and all the secrets you seek will be yours. Only serve him with loyalty as I have and everything you desire shall come to you." He gestured behind him at where Tayuya was crouched, almost hiding behind the barrier holding Hinata. Her demon giants were still standing motionless.

"If you wish, we will even bring the girl the Hyūga gave to you – their sad attempt to tie you to their pathetic village though marriage. But with my Master, you will have the females _you _choose, not the weaklings the old men of Konoha tried to use to burden you. Your future will be on _your _terms. Whichever women you want, Orochimaru can make them yours, as many as you wish; their strength and their bodies will belong to you only, to remake your once proud clan as you see fit."

"_Yes_," Sasuke snarled with fierce joy, his face torn by a horrible rictus – the corpse of a smile rotting on his lips. "But first. First I must kill someone."

"Your brother will die, my Master promises that."

"Yes," Sasuke said again, reaching out to take Kimimaro's hand. He grasped it firmly with his right, then said, "he will, and first, you." He released the charge of lighting chakra he'd quietly built for the last minute inside his ninjatō, gathering it dangerously in an instant into his left hand and arm. The blade dropped from his hand, but before it fell even an inch Sasuke had driven his hand into Kimimaro's chest, his arm crossing where he still held firm to the enemy ninja's right hand, pulling the taller man forward into his strike. The Chidori's shrill sound echoed briefly through the edge of the forest as it drilled into Kimimaro's chest.

It had sunk barely an inch before bone spikes exploded from the Sound shinobi's chest, impaling Sasuke high on his left arm, canceling the Chidori jutsu in a cloud of lightning. More spears hit Sasuke's right wrist, just under his last right rib, and through his right shoulder. Several more nicked his torso, but none of them deeply or in a critical location. Only the flicker of chakra just under his enemy's skin had allowed him to avoid worse.

Sasuke screamed in pain and frustration, but luckily the bust of lightning had knocked Kimimaro's hand out of his grasp and his bone-covered body back several paces. Sasuke grabbed the still-falling sword from midair as he dashed straight back several chakra-enhanced sliding steps. He glared at where the skin was once again healing over the bloody wound in Kimimaro's chest.

"Heh," his foe said, spitting out blood. "A half an inch deeper and that might have gotten me. Too bad you're so weak. Ah well, I'll just drag you unconscious to my Master. It doesn't matter to me if I have to break every bone in your body, you _will_ serve him."

Bones sprang from all over Kimimaro's body. His knees extended thick spears, his chest became covered in boney thorns, and his back was now a garden of spikes. Then he shrugged his shoulder and a crack formed in his flesh. He reached inside the growing wound with his right hand and pulled out one of his own bones, which seemed to be regrowing almost as fast as he extracted it. Finally pulling free a macabre sword made from his own body, Kimimaro pointed it at Sasuke in a menacing gesture. "Surrender now or your friends will all die. I will kill them myself if I must. Do not doubt my resolve."

Bleeding now from a half-dozen wounds, Sasuke laughed long and low. "You'll have to kill me first."

Kimimaro glared at him again, then sighed with a small smile. "My strength is such that you are unable to force me to kill you. I will end this now." He dashed forward again, faster than Sasuke could retreat, then he was back on defense again. Kimimaro was faster now, or maybe he was slowing down. Blows were connecting, bone spears nicking his arms and legs over and over. His opponent was trying to bleed him out or cripple him, and there was nothing Sasuke could do to stop it. He was having problems holding onto his sword now as blood flowed freely down his arm. His right hand could barely move. It hurt to breath. If only he could be just a little faster. If only he could see more.

Sasuke could already perceive blurry shapes foreshadowing strikes before they connected. But it wasn't enough. He was only seeing strikes after his opponent started moving, after the chakra was almost finished spiking, after his foe was in motion. He knew he needed to be able to dodge sooner; he could move fast enough but he couldn't see what to _do_. He had to try _harder_ to see everything. Feeding more and more chakra into his eyes, he pushed until he could start to see beyond that barrier. Until the next strike became a logical necessity, driven inexorably by previous attacks. Then the one after that, further into the future. Another tomoe squeezed into existence and begun spin into each of Sasuke's eyes, three of the black shapes circling at high speed.

Kimimaro now seemed to Sasuke to be a step slower than he should be. Relentless dancing stabs were now glancing blows or dodged entirely. He was beginning to get sword strikes in again on the pale monster, but they simply glanced off Kimimaro's arms and shoulders, and only the long reach of his sword allowed him to connect at all. Despite his sudden improvement, Sasuke knew he was going to tire sooner rather than later and he still didn't have a plan to win.

Kimimaro wasn't meeting his gaze, obviously aware of the Sharingan's abilities. Wide-area genjutsu wouldn't work too well against someone as strong as him, and anyway Sasuke knew he was pretty badly hurt. That would mean trouble focusing and a failed technique. Kimimaro wasn't truly slowing down much either – his strikes were crushing and fast, his footwork was immaculate, his taijutsu nearly perfect. That could be worked around but Sasuke just didn't have anything that could punch through the bone armor except for the Chidori. Even now, he wasn't fast enough to connect with a full power, full windup strike and hold it the fraction of a second required to break through the thick bone. At least, not without impaling himself.

Just when he was about to try something desperate involving explosive tags at closer than academy suggested minimum range, he saw a tiny burst of chakra and Neji was standing behind Kimimaro.

* * *

Sakura was so tired. She didn't want to move another step and her side was killing her. The patched up wound wasn't bleeding anymore, but of all the strike force she had been the worst injured by the initial ambush.

It had knocked her through a branch and into a second tree – well away from the ensuring fight, thankfully. She had a fair sized chuck of flesh around her lower left ribs around to her back punched out by the collision and she'd lost consciousness until just after the fight was over. Once again, she missed the real battle. But she wouldn't fail Sasuke-kun.

"Find Hinata, don't give up," she repeated to herself again. She'd kept tracking the tag on the girl's jacket while the others were in a cleanup fight against the three Sound kidnappers who'd stayed behind. The rest of the Leaf ninja weren't having any serious issues and no one was hurt badly, so they clearly didn't need her help. And anyway, Sasuke-kun had gone on ahead. She'd heard Shikamaru say so. She couldn't disappoint Sasuke-kun by stopping. After quickly patching herself up, she'd decided to push on.

So now here she was, just at the edge of the forest, facing off against three huge, immobile giants several hundred feet away while sounds of Sasuke-kun fighting someone super tough went on in the distance. There was zero chance, nil, _zilch_ that she could help him in such a high-level fight. Though, maybe if Sasuke-kun...used her _body_...as a _shield_. Nooo, that wasn't anything sexy or cool enough for him. She'd just wait back here for a chance to help somehow. Maybe by killing this awful cunt who was stealing her hair color. Really, pink was _her_ thing.

Gah. The ugly giant motherfuckers weren't moving at all – must be controlled somehow by the stupid Sound kunoichi they were crowded around. But it looked like that Tayuya bitch didn't see her, which was just as well as she looked different. More powerful. Most likely some new stupid ability. Maybe level two, whatever the hell that was. More like level two of being ugly ("HELL YEAH SHE'S UGLY!" said the slightly tired and winded voice in her head). Whatever. Shikamaru's explanation made sense but was short on details Sakura needed right now.

And there was Sakura's target, Hinata. She was still tied up but appeared uninjured. She was also under a strange glowing shield that she had no idea how to disable. Shit. She would just have to edge around and wait for a chance to rescue the poor girl. Then she'd be the hero and Sasuke-kun would have to look at her. Praise her. Maybe even (she blushed to think about it) go on a date with her. And then...after her date...under the moonlight, when they were all alone together-

Sakura drifted slowly around the edge of the battlefield on silent feet, stealthy but lost completely in her internal fantasy, barely aware enough not to squeal out-loud at her own deeply perverted thoughts.

* * *

Seizing the moment and striking out uselessly with a high slice to the Sound ninja's head, Sasuke attempted to stall long enough for Neji to land a surprise blow from behind. Unfortunately for them, Kimimaro sensed something and simply let the slash slide along his forehead as he leaped and twisted backward over Neji's rapid jūken strikes. Then Neji was spinning wildly to try to track and parry all of the bones striking out from the Sound ninja's chest, arms, and back. Inspiration struck as Kimimaro landed on the other side of the Hyūga, and Sasuke suddenly thrust straight at Neji's back, as if to impale the Hyūga genius.

The pale-eyed boy, like Hinata, saw everything around him. As expected, he bowed suddenly, spinning and whipping a sweeping a kick at Kimimaro's legs while Sasuke's sword passed barely an inch above his head. Kimimaro jumped to avoid the kick but took the sword strike to his chest and was knocked back and off balance. Sasuke followed that up with thrown kunai aimed straight at Kimimaro's eyes, the only unarmed part of his body he could target. Using his right hand hurt, but the throw was accurate. The Sound shinobi barely dodged out of the way and unsuccessfully tried to remove Neji's neck with his bone sword in reply.

And so began a strange, silent dance. Kimimaro tried to stab Neji without opening himself to an armor-piercing jūken strike while Sasuke threatened his eyes and joints, where the bone plates had to have weaknesses. Sasuke could now see where even the lightning fast jūken strikes were going before Neji had started moving.

Long practice with Hinata taught him the basics of the Jūken style and his eyes showed him what Neji was doing before even Neji seemed to know. He stood behind the other ninja and his sword danced around the Hyūga boy's body. They moved and fought as if they were one person, Sasuke's and Neji's eyes complimenting each other and allowing normally impossible levels of cooperation.

Occasionally, they switched places and Sasuke had to recall the pattern of jūken strikes that would be coming from behind him based on their current situation and memorized katas from Hinata's training, moving bare inches at the right time to keep out of the jūken user's way. This seemed to be troubling Kimimaro, who was hindered by not being able to kill Sasuke and not being able to touch Neji. But even after several minutes fighting, an eternity in ninja combat, only a few jūken blows had connected on Kimimaro's arms, and none of those seemed to be slowing him down in any real way.

A streak of orange and odd chakra in the corner of Sasuke's eye announced the first wave of Naruto's clones clearing the forest. Kimimaro noticed this also, then he suddenly had spikes shooting out of his entire body. Dodging frantically out of the way, Neji and Sasuke were finally separated. Trying to close again, possibly too quickly, Neji was met with a hail of finger bones. He dodged them easily, but was slowed long enough for Kimimaro to close with Sasuke. And then, just like that, Sasuke lost.

A bone sword strike flicked at his head, which he parried. A knee spear struck at his chest, which he dodged. Seven bone spikes from Kimimaro's arms, legs, and chests shot out all at once, aimed at his entire body, too fast for Sasuke to dodge them all. He took one on his right thigh and went down hard, his head slumping down almost to touch the ground. He heard Neji grunt in pain an instant later and felt the impact through the ground as Kimimaro kicked him into a tree several dozen feet away. That was it, Neji was now out of the fight. He'd heard bones break in that strike and on hitting the tree. Maybe Neji was still alive, Sasuke thought, but that wouldn't matter in a few seconds unless he could pull himself together.

Looking up defiantly, Sasuke dragged himself to his feet, limping a little as he tried to bring up his sword again. Kimimaro simply looked at him blankly. With a tired shake of his head, he said, "Tayuya, you still alive, you useless bitch?"

"Y-yes, Kimimaro-sama," she stammered back, her giants swatting at the seemingly endless Naruto clones that were just now starting to attack her. Kimimaro nodded his head, then looked back at Hinata under the glowing barrier shield and said. "I am finished now. Take care of his bitch. She is no longer needed."

Sasuke's eyes grew wide and he sprang into motion, moving faster than he'd ever moved before, ignoring his injuries and the monstrous Sound ninja. Shunshining across the edge of the forest, he tried to reach Tayuya before she could play her flute again, before she could complete her orders. He was a fraction of a second too late.

One of the giant summons brought his club down in a ground-shatteringly powerful swing, far faster than something that large should have been able to move. The barrier around Hinata shattered like glass as the giant's club hit it and she disappeared in a cloud of dust. The club came back up covered in red.

Sasuke skidded to a halt as he looked through the clearing air. He saw a shattered shape mixed up with torn cloth, crushed chains, and a large splatter of blood. A horribly damp torn sleeve with a Fire Country emblem on it was clearly visible.

He froze as his vision slowly seeped into a dull shade of red, then suddenly everything went black and white and spun all the way around. Then he blinked, and he had Tayuya pinned to a tree with his sword and he was killing her slowly and calmly with a kunai while she screamed.


	20. Chapter 20

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note: **My Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

Due to massive overwriting of this chapter (somebody stop me) and excessive awesomeness, Chapter #20 is _not_ the final part of the _Find Hinata_ arc. There is almost no way however that the next chapter, #21, won't finish this part of the story. Almost. No. Way. If it turns out to be only a few thousand words, I might publish it early and make the next full-sized chapter entirely in the next storyline. We'll see.

After that, we'll have fun leading up to the next Chūnin Exams, where surely Sasuke will actually get promoted. I mean, what could _possibly_ go wrong?

Next scheduled update in two weeks, **2013-03-24**. Thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

In a world of his own hate, Sasuke stood alone. There was a tree shaped thing, the Sound kunoichi pinned to it with his sword, and him with a knife – but they weren't real, he wasn't real. An endless, featureless plain stretched out in all directions. His hand held the knife, but it also wasn't his hand. It was some kind of proto-genjutsu construct, controlled by his will.

He could see everything happening in this space, sort of like how he thought the Byakugan must feel like, but he also had a sense of how the person eventually trapped in here would react to his...creativity. "His" arm and knife were currently doing horrible things to the representation in his mind of the Sound kunoichi, things she would surely rather die than suffer from. Even though he wasn't really controlling it directly, this fake-him was still doing things that he wanted it too, enacting the punishments he felt the foolish girl deserved.

The knife was moving ceaselessly as she screamed, slicing _here_, slow and shallow, on the underside of her arm, then suddenly stabbing deep between her ribs in her side, then a _twist_ before withdrawing it again. These wounds in the real world would surely be fatal, but she couldn't die in here, not without his permission. And then, when he let her "die," he could, like in his training genjutsu, just bring her back again for more.

So this was the power his hated brother had – an endless space of his own design to torture his foes as he wished. Sasuke hated it. He was self-aware enough to realize some of that feeling was from his memories of his brother's tender care in the same genjutsu, but it was also the supreme pointlessness of it all. He must have unlocked the next level of his Sharingan to be able to use this...which meant Hinata was, _had been_, his most important person, his closest friend.

All this time he thought it would be that idiot Naruto. All this time he thought he'd eventually have to kill the stupid little idiot, just to get more power. He'd tried to remain friendless, to avoid any of his stupid, weak classmates getting any closer – keep them from becoming the sacrifice he knew he needed to become stronger. He should be happy – he had the eyes his brother had demanded he attain, the next step in his revenge against his hated sibling, and all without the blood of his best friend on his hands. His so-called achievement tasted like ashes. He wanted nothing to do with this new power.

But he was here and already using it so he might as well explore it while he had the chance. He could _feel_ the Sound bitch's chakra waiting for him, just behind the veil of the unreal. Time was frozen for him, this world waiting for him to finish his design. He was having trouble thinking about anything but death and hate and his revenge. This small amount of time compression therefore wouldn't help him plan his next move in a fight or give him time to think. All considerations, all thoughts about anything but new and more immoral uses for a blade on the soft flesh of a certain young woman skittered off his mind like water on a hot griddle.

Perhaps that was a limitation of the time jutsu component, maybe a requirement for activating it in the first place. Whatever it was, his victim and the rest of the outside world was frozen in time. Once he released the horrors he'd designed, his chakra would cover hers, fill _her_ mind with his custom designed tortures. He would return to the real world and then her suffering would begin, for hours and hours – or at least until someone released her from the genjutsu. But it didn't truly interest him; this technique wouldn't work on his brother, so why spend any more time working on it?

He still needed to finish – finalize the design of the kunoichi's personal hell and unleash it upon her. She had killed Hinata, so she would suffer. He took no pleasure in that, just a feeling of relief that he wouldn't have to worry about yet another person to track down and take revenge upon.

"Killing her over and over again with a knife is too simple," he thought out loud, but no one else was in his head to hear him. His imaginary blade was still buried in the illusion of her neck as the puppet in his mind thrashed and spasmed, still hanging from the sword in her guts, her hands now clutching at the blade in her neck. She was gurgling quietly as she tried to die. He didn't let it end yet. This death would be painful and humiliating for the real Tayuya, but it wasn't creative enough. That was the kind of thing his uninventive, serious brother would do. Simple physical pain, over and over. A blunt approach. Sasuke had another idea. Hopefully it would work.

* * *

Striking a heroic pose, Naruto surveyed the battlefield. Some of his clones were still standing over the three unmoving Sound ninja kidnappers. The rest of the lesser goons were also down, some with multiple weapons still stuck in them care of Tenten. There had been about a dozen of them in the massed group that had attacked them when everything went BOOM. Naruto hated ambushes, but Shikamaru's brilliant strategy had defeated them soundly. Teamwork! Naruto threw his fist in the air and tried to figure out what to do next.

Shikamaru was reorganizing the rest of the team, talking to them in hurried whispers. No one was hurt too bad. Tenten was wrapping up an arm injury, but she could apparently still use it. On of the Hyūga clan ninja (Saburu?) had taken a minor stab wound and was out of the fight. He'd stay behind with the prisoners and report to the trailing medical squad, Shika said. Naruto wasn't exactly sure when he'd heard that, as Shika hadn't gotten anywhere near him since the ambush, but he still had a vague memory of Shika grabbing him and giving him the information, then...punching him?!

Naruto gasped out loud. No way! Once this was over, he'd challenge Shikamaru to a straight up fight, none of the sneaking around and punching people when they weren't there! They'd won easily enough with his plan, but that didn't excuse such rudeness from a teammate!

He double-checked that all of the enemy ninja had been taken care of then paused for a moment when he saw that some of them were lying really still but weren't tied up. He assumed they'd been knocked out and Shikamaru would eventually tie them up and maybe bandage some of the ones who were bleeding rather badly. But he needed to press on and find Hinata-chan and the Bastard, so there was no reason to stick around for that. Neji-baka had also run ahead, and there was no way he was going to lose to that stuck up idiot!

Jumping down from his perch, Naruto started producing more clones to go ahead at full speed, and also, after slapping his head and remembering his orders, one to report his plan to Shika (as the young genius had drilled into him during the chase – always report in when _something_ _something_ a change of plans! All right, can do!). He then sped away at full speed to save Hinata-chan. The Bastard was likely already in trouble, so he guessed he'd save him too. If he had the time. And Sakura-chan was out there somewhere as well! So many people to save! Good thing he had hundreds of clones in the woods by now.

As he was leaping from tree branch to tree branch, he wasn't sure why, but it seemed like he was getting instructions from that huge, long, white cat. It kept telling him which way to go, then the jerk attacked, scratching the hell out of him! This fight was really messing with his head, but it figured that the Bastard's cats would be stupid and violent as well. When he actually found that cat, they'd have it out. He wouldn't lose to a stupid, freaking long cat. He'd also have a little talk with the black-haired Uchiha punching bag later – with his fists! Yeah!

* * *

Since there was no way she could directly help him, Sakura's plan was to sneak up and disable the seal array around Hinata, then get the hell out of there. She didn't actually know _how _to disable the seals but she'd figure something out. Tayuya was distracted and watching Sasuke-kun, so maybe she stood a chance.

Sneaking closer on silent feet, checking all the bushes and trees for hidden opponents and traps, she still almost screamed out loud when one of Sasuke-kun's cute cat summons appeared in front of her, seemingly out of thin air. Sakura twitched violently and scrambled to avoid falling down, desperately stifling her whimpers of fear. The long white cat stared at her. She barely kept her balance and stared back. Almost a minute passed, then the huge, ghostly white summons spoke in an impossibly deep voice.

"Greetings, kunoichi of the Leaf," he said, winding his way around a tree while staring at her. She sensed he wasn't impressed by what he saw. Sakura pressed herself against the tree and tried to regain her composure while another two cats, the twin black ones, appeared on either side of the long white one.

"H-hello," she whispered, looking at the cats with worry.

"Young one, you need to retrieve the mission target immediately and retreat from the battle field. The crows have spotted her true location – you are heading for the decoy. They are both protected by a powerful barrier jutsu. I can collapse the seal array but you need to attend to Hyūga-sama's injuries and protect her until the rest of the team catches up with us. There could still be Sound ninja in the area; you can and will remain hidden and vigilant."

"Okay," Sakura said slowly, wonder why she was taking orders from a cat. But it made sense and they were Sasuke-kun's summons after all. She snuck forward again, this time with the cat summons flanking her, filled with determination not to fail her love, Sasuke-kun.

* * *

Three of him had just died while fighting a man he couldn't see. He didn't understand how he now knew what they had seen. He'd never used clones outside of his own line of sight before, so maybe this was a side effect. If they were fighting together, _obviously _he could see what happened. Maybe this was something else, something about having so many spread out everywhere. He knew something had happened during the ambush that was like having eyes in the back of his head, watching everyone he had to protect, alerting him when someone attacked his clones where he wasn't looking. This must be like that. He'd figure it out later – maybe Kakashi-sensei would have an idea what it was.

Naruto dodged out of the way of another of his clones that had received the same information and was now rushing at full speed toward the conflict. They had also reported...

Naruto skidded to a halt, grabbing onto a large branch with his chakra in his feet and both hands. Several of his clones fell out of trees and popped against the ground several stories below. His eyes widened in shock. He'd just seen Hinata-chan die in front of him, somewhere ahead. And then he was stabbed to death. But first, Sasuke got stabbed and almost died and then he dropped the sound kunoichi like a sack of screaming potatoes without even touching her. And then after that Naruto had gotten stabbed to death twice more, again. He need to hurry, but...but it was already too late to save Hinata-chan.

He tried to think this through smartly, like Shika would. It didn't make sense but he could somehow see what was happening. And Naruto could tell Sasuke wasn't going to be able to beat that tall Sound ninja with the white hair and weird spikes. Not when a dozen of his clones had just died in an instant trying to fight the strange shinobi. More were continuing to fight, but it wouldn't be enough. He couldn't even land a blow.

Neji was already down, hurt bad enough to take him out of the fight, and he was way tougher than Sasuke. If those two arrogant jerks couldn't beat that guy working together, like he had also somehow seen them trying to do, then how could-

He swallowed hard, realization striking. He'd have to, or they'd all...he'd already failed poor Hinata-chan, he couldn't let his teammates down the same way. Guilt washed over him as he remembered something he'd never seen before, wasn't there to see. Another of his clones must have gotten a better view, decided to confirm...everything. He had seen that broken, blood-soaked mess that had once been the shy little girl with the quiet smile, the one who was always hiding behind the trees and fainting – she was just gone. It had been so fast. Naruto shuddered and tried to pull himself together.

Sakura-chan was there too, somewhere nearby. One of his clones, he guessed, had seen a glimpse of her a while back, pink hair creeping through the low brush, a few minutes before being popped. Naruto realized that if he didn't help, she'd die the same, just another smear of blood on the forest floor. He had already seen what he thought was Sasuke's death once before, he didn't have to try hard to imagine that happening again.

They'd all die. If he didn't...then they'd die, and he'd be all alone again. What would he tell Kakashi-sensei? Even if he survived, they wouldn't be a team anymore. He would be alone. Kakashi-sensei would leave him too, he knew that. A few times when he thought they weren't paying attention, during practice or a mission, his eyes had looked so sad when he looked at them. Maybe this was what he'd always feared would happen. Team Seven, killed in action. Just more names on a wall for his one-eyed teacher to stare at. Even if he survived, would his sensei? Would either of them be able to go on?

A cold ball grew in his stomach as everything else became as hot as the noon day sun. His skin hurt like it was getting sunburned and his muscles ached, one gigantic cramp clutching his body.

No, he couldn't allow that to happen. Not to his friends. Not anyone from Konoha. Not his precious people. His vision was quickly growing hazy with the glowing red energy that was surrounding his body. He couldn't hold back this time. He couldn't let them down.

He tried to remember the lessons that pervy sensei had tried to pound into his head. Something about keeping a single goal in mind while struggling for control, even in the heat of battle. But it didn't matter, he needed all the power he could get. To protect. To get **revenge**. To **kill anyone who dared **hurt his precious people. He shook his head, trying to clear it. It was growing stronger, that urge to lose himself in his rage. He knew he couldn't give in completely but he also he couldn't afford to hold back now.

"I need all the power you've got, you stupid fox! I can't let them die!" he screamed raggedly, his voice echoing across the empty forest. His back suddenly flexed up, almost breaking him in half, and he screamed, pulling his hands away from the branch he was crouching on. He clutched his head as it felt as if it would split apart at any moment. Another spasm bent him in the other direction, his body shaking as the red chakra started flowing out of him even faster and through him, consuming him. His hands now clutched for a purchase as he collapsed to all fours again.

His fingers dug into the branch, knife-like nails growing and chipping bark, plowing deep groves as his they flexed. His lips drew back in a pained grimace as his teeth grew into fangs. The dark whisker marks on his face were now black streaks and he was entirely covered in a red haze. He knew it wasn't enough yet.

"More, stupid!" he growled around his fangs, his voice deep and less than fully human already. "I need enough to beat someone who just kicked Sasuke AND Neji-baka's ass! Do it! Now!"

"**Huhuhu,**" a horrible deep voice laughed, scraping the inside of his head like nails on a chalkboard. "**Are you sure about that, ****brat****? ****You're so weak, aren't you?**** Can you really take any more without dying?**"

"Stuff it up your ass, fox! Just give it to me!

"**You really are a stubborn one, brat. Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you.**"

His mind was shutting down and things were becoming more and more confused. A voice in his head whispered something about blood and vengeance, and also something weird and perverted sounding about doing a better job of protecting his bitches. He didn't understand that part but the how of it was clearly laid out: all he had to do was let go, give up control, sink into the power.

But he couldn't allow that. The voice had a plan of its own, that was clear, and Naruto still had a goal he couldn't fail at, something he couldn't allow the voice to interfere with. A single, unbreakable duty to his friends. He couldn't fail. If he did, he was worse than scum.

The flow of horrible red chakra paused for a moment, then it came back again, twice as strong. The voice was silent now. Naruto could feel that it understood duty even as it scoffed at his weakness. Now it was done – an agreement had been reached. Long claws of red chakra grew from around his hands and feet. The tree branch cracked dangerously under his grip. There was now a single long tail of pure, roiling red energy that whipped around him. He felt **powerful**. He felt **angry**. He felt **vengeful**.

Sakura-chan. Sasuke. Neji. Friends.

**Brothers in arms**** and ****his ****bitch**.

Protect them.

**Kill the**** kunoichi ****who ****murdered ****his ****other ****bitch. ****L****eave ****the ****bleeding corpse ****of his enemy**** hanging from the trees ****of the deepest forest ****as a warning to others.**

Get everyone out safe and alive.

**Find the one who hurt ****his blood****-****brother**** and ****rend ****the**** flesh from his bones, ****then ****s****uck the marrow from them ****as ****his ****broken ****foe ****slowly died in a****g****o****n****y**.

Whatever it took. He'd not lose another friend. No one else was allowed to die. Nothing else mattered now. He had to move. Fast.

The tree branch exploded behind him as he as surged forward, now moving through the trees as a red blur. He barely touched down as he flew between them, leaping from trunk to trunk sideways on all fours, jumping dozens of yards with every lunge, moving ahead at breakneck speeds. Ancient trunks were left broken and scared behind him as his powerful leaps simultaneously blew them apart and lit them on fire with the overloaded chakra he was channeling through his limbs.

The trail of destruction was easy to follow when a confused Shikamaru found it minutes later. Looking at the still smoking and broken wooden splinters, the lazy young man paused on a still-intact branch and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment while considering the scene. He sighed, the pieces starting to come together.

"Seriously troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, then signaled his team to pick up the pace as he started off again after what he could only assume was the Hidden Village of the Leaf's jinchūriki of the Nine-tails, Naruto, unleashed and rampaging. Either that, or a natural disaster had decided to join the fight.

* * *

Hinata was safe in her arms now. Or at least, she'd _be _safe. Soon. Sakura moved slowly through the underbrush in a low rescue crawl, too afraid of being spotted to dare tree jumping or running around in the open. Safer this way. If there was something Sakura knew, it was how to hide in the bushes like a scared little squirrel and avoid a fight. She was a pro at it. She was now babbling in her own head, another part of her said, disgusted ("Man the fuck up, girl!"). That horrible illusion was bad enough to have shaken her up, even at a distance, but she needed to get it together, and fast.

It had looked just like Hinata had been crushed to death under that huge giant's club. She'd seen it while trying to escape, mere seconds after she'd freed the _real _unconscious and bound girl from an identical energy-domed prison. Hinata had been hidden behind a low outcropping of rocks, far away from Sasuke-kun, that weird Sound shinobi, and that ugly, hair-color-stealing Sound skank.

It had to have been some kind of trick they were trying on Sasuke-kun, but she knew he'd see through it. He was so smart. And handsome. And brave...right, anyway. Her best guess was that it was a mind game and Orochimaru wanted the Byakugan bad enough to fake it instead of just killing her. Good thing for them the whole thing was rushed and Hinata had been left unguarded. Maybe she'd actually get away with this. Sakura continued to drag the unconscious girl behind her, exhausted from the long run but unable to rest until they were far enough away to be secure until help arrived. She looked back and noticed the cats were still following behind her, carefully obscuring the drag marks from her progress across the forest floor.

Her mind drifted, thinking about why she ever wanted to be a ninja in the first place, what was keeping her going, and when she'd be able to get a good, hot shower again – the usual sort of things one thought about while crawling through brambles as quietly as possible so one didn't die horribly. She grunted and sweated as she tried to keep from dragging Hinata through the worst of it, but that only got Sakura scratched up more.

The answer to the first question for her, and the answer had to be different for every ninja, was a cloud of vague ideas of saving the village from evil and protecting people from danger. It was amazing how romantic and foolish she'd been as a kid. By the time she was about to graduate the Academy, she wasn't even thinking about the "why" any longer. It was all wrapped up in her old, disastrous friendship with Ino and her new, disastrous obsession with Sasuke. Her old romantic ideas about ninja didn't seem to matter most of the time, but now that she thought about it, this whole mission was like the games of ninja and princess she used to play with Ino as a little kid.

She'd be the princess locked away in the evil Daimyō's castle (the second floor of her parent's house) and Ino would rescue her (play fight against Sakura, who was also the enemy ninja). Then Sakura would lie down on her bed and be rescued (carried back downstairs) by Ino. She could still remember Ino's small, strong, suntanned arms under her legs and back, lifting her and carrying her to safety like a hero should. It had been amazing to her how strong her friend was, something she'd later learn was the result of intensive training from an early age by a proud clan of ninja. At the time, she didn't know about clans and such and could only silently marvel at how beautiful and graceful Ino looked, everything Sakura saw missing from herself.

Ino had been ("Always will be," a quiet voice said in her head) her first, best, and (until Team Seven) only friend. No one else at the Academy would play with her, they all wanted to be with the popular ninja clan kids. Some had specifically picked on her because she wasn't from an important or rich family. If it hadn't been her forehead, it would have been something else.

Then one transcendentally wonderful day, Ino had picked her out, given her a gift, and shown her another way to see herself. She could still remember Ino's tinkling laughter and her huge smiles as they played together that magical summer. How long had it been since she'd last heard that playful sound, not the forced, mocking laugh it had become? They had done everything together before third year at the Academy, when she'd noticed how much attention Ino was suddenly paying to Sasuke-kun. When she'd made her worst, most horrible mistake ever. Sakura sighed and tried to focus on her mission again.

Well away and out of sight of the fight now, in the center of a thick cluster of brush, she decided to call a halt. Starting to consider how to evaluate the girl's injuries, Sakura also realized she needed to figure out how to free Hinata from the thick chains that were wrapped around her arms and legs, leaving her limbs bent awkwardly behind her. Finding the sealing tag for the whole mess, she gestured impatiently to the long white cat who had shadowed her after unsealing the glowing barrier dome around Hinata earlier. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed quietly but still came over and started pushing and prodding at the complicated seal with one paw, just like before. A minute later, the cat summon's paw and the seal both flashed then glowed dimly, and then the chains fell away with a horribly loud clatter.

Sakura flinched and the long white cat glared at her as if it were her fault. Crouching silently for a minute, Sakura decided no one had heard and started slowly, _quietly _removing Hinata's chains. The other seals on the girl weren't booby trapped and could just be peeled off, which Sakura quickly did. After running a weak, shaky diagnostic-level Shōsen over Hinata, both palms barely glowing a pale green, she decided the long, ugly purple bruise on her back and some other minor contusions were the worst of her injuries. No broken bones or internal bleeding.

"That's good news," she thought with a sigh, "because I don't know how to fix those yet."

Nothing to do now but wait for the recovery team to arrive. With the last of her strength, she cast a small-area cloaking genjutsu over them. It would only last a few minutes even if she didn't move around too much, but that would hopefully be enough. Shikamaru's last orders were simple: after initial retrieval, keep Hinata safe and hidden; do not to attempt to engage the enemy or attempt solo extraction with the target (Hinata) until a path of escape is secured by the rest of the team. So she just had to stay hidden and wait.

Sakura could totally handle that. Just her, alone with Sasuke-kun's quiet little Hyūga bride. She didn't know why, but she didn't hate the cute little thing anymore. Sure, she was an introverted, unattractive muscle girl, but apparently she could really fight, having held her own much longer than any genin would be expected to while battling against four superior opponents in open combat, in two separate engagements. Sakura was sure she couldn't have done as well. Sure, they had been trying to capture and not kill her, but it was still impressive.

Sasuke-kun was still too good for her, obviously, but she didn't actually seem interested in him anyway. Maybe Sakura's plan would work. Being personally responsible for tracking down and rescuing the Hyūga clan head's eldest daughter would certainly be the "in" she needed to get a betrothal agreement with the raven haired hunk's guardian. And maybe...maybe after that she could really be friends with the dark, quiet little girl. It would be good to finally have another female friend. Sakura had been so lonely after kinda, sorta breaking off her friendship with Ino ("Crushing your own heart," said the tiny internal voice) because of, of a _boy_. She didn't want to think about that anymore. But Hinata didn't even _like _Sasuke-kun, let alone _like-like _him, so that shouldn't be a problem.

"Which is a good thing," Sakura thought, looking down at the girl again, "because Hinata-chan sure has something all the idiots at the Academy would have drooled over, if they had only known." But not her love though – she...he was too classy for that, Sakura told herself ("Hell yeah," said a very tired sounding Inner Sakura). She stared off blankly into space, her mind drifting strangely.

Sakura wasn't feeling too good. She'd used too much chakra and it had left her a little loopy and now she had to struggle to keep her eyes from drooping shut. She needed something to distract her, keep her awake. Looking around, her eyes fell once again on Hinata where she lay in a pile of fallen leaves, tucked into the thick brush and hidden from the trees above.

Running the manual medical scans had left the dark-haired girl's jacket open, exposing the same exercise wear from yesterday evening, when Sasuke-kun had come to tell them Naruto was back. It seemed like a century ago she'd first seen this and she once again gaped at Hinata's huge, gigantic, impossible boobs. They held her attention like a snake with a rabbit – she couldn't look away. Remembering what she'd seen happen earlier with that Sound skank, she reach out without thinking and grabbed one of the large exercise bra cups. Her fingers closed on a hard but thin metal shell, built in to absorb impacts and blunt blades.

"Hmm, maybe something like would make my boobs look bigger," Sakura considered blearily while idly squeezing and poking at Hinata's metal-guarded breasts. The large white cat behind her looked on with eyebrows raised all the way up his furry face. One of the black cats sauntered up closer before noticing what was happening. Tail instantly bottle-brushing in surprise, it froze for a second then immediately turned around and walked away, shaking its head slowly.

Poking around further and following the straps around back, Sakura saw it was designed sort of like a samurai's segmented armor, but adopted as a woman's support garment. It looked like it was made from expensive chakra metal, too, most likely reinforced and lightened with seals. Lucky girl.

A far away look on her face, her hands started wandering even more. Her initial, overly intimate investigation had caused her to look again at the smooth, solid curves the other girl had all across her back, arms, and sides. It was a little breathtaking to see up-close how toned the girl was.

She slowly ran her hands down Hinata's arms, still hidden inside the jacket sleeves, feeling the weight of the well-developed, taijutsu hardened limbs. Sakura wondered if Ino- no, if _Sas__u__ke-kun_ felt like this. He'd surely have muscles like this from all his training. And if they were this amazing feeling on Hinata...and they were _amazing_, what would he look like, _feel _like? She was quickly disconnecting entirely from reality, sinking into her imagination.

* * *

_Her short blade still dripping with the blood of the last foe she'd faced, she slowly climbed in through the open window. The prince was sleeping in his bed, his short black hair spread across his pillow. All of her kills had been quick and perfectly silent, as befitting a proper ninja, and no one had been alerted to her presence yet._

_Pulling down her mask and reaching up to remove the hood hiding her bright pink hair, she sat down on the bed next to the one she was sent to save. Her employer, however, had no idea she already knew the target, and was in love with...him? The beautiful...blond...boy had been locked up by his evil uncle, a powerful landed-lord and alley of the corrupt central government, and Sakura was here to save...him._

_Suddenly, the...girl woke, her eyes immediately darting to the stranger in...his room. He took in a gasping breath and was about to scream when Sakura's hand came down on...her mouth, smothering the attempt._

"_Do not cry out, princess, I am here to save you," she said softly, reaching up to stroke her long blond hair._

"_But how?" the girl asked in shock, eyes wide. "You are just a girl working in the stables! How can you-" Sakura's finger touched...his lips gently, quieting the boy/the girl's questions._

"_Do you trust me?" she asked in a whisper, her green eyes glinting in the moonlight._

"_I...yes, but...there are many guards! How can I know you'll be able to get us both to safety?"_

"_Let me show you some of my skills, princess," she replied, her voice growing suddenly gruff and sultry, "and then, you will believe in my strength." Reaching down, she slowly unclasped the top button of the...prince's...lacy gown? The interfering fabric removed, her hands brushed against the princess's pale skin and moved lower, softly touching and pressing against...his...firm muscles, hard earned from...her fencing classes. Sakura's hands continued to explore, gently caressing and squeezing...his large, soft...breasts?_

* * *

Sakura was breathing faster now. A strange, confusing double-vision had invaded her perverted daydream. Was it about a boy who looked just like Sasuke-kun, girl with short black hair, or another a girl with long blond hair who looked really familiar...and why would she be thinking about girls in her sexy, sexy Sasuke-kun fantasies?

She found herself dragging her palms over Hinata's chest again, feeling the girl breathing steady and slow and the constant, strong heartbeat that thudded in her solid chest. Sakura's own heart was beating much faster now and Inner Sakura was strangely silent. She could feel her secret self's emotions, though – how hot and confused and _hungry_ she was, egging Sakura on without words, drawing her eyes back to Hinata.

She looked so peaceful, like a noble princess asleep in her bed. But not one waiting to be rescued in some tower; a princess born with a sword in her hand, like in the stories about the warrior samurai women Sakura had loved so much when she was younger. Hinata's body was carved out of pale granite, her sleeping form a perfect little statue of a resting warrior. Her black hair was two dark wings framing her round, fine-boned face. Her mouth, with the cute little bow-shape on her upper lip, was slightly open.

Sakura's hands had now wandered down to just under Hinata's heavy (and well armored) breasts and were starting to trail over the muscles on her torso, ones Sakura didn't even think she _had _herself. She swallowed nervously as her hands reached Hinata's bare stomach and started running over her tight abdominal muscles. Not quite a six-pack, but very...very nice.

If...if this were Sasuke-kun, Sakura would want to...she paused, looking sleepily at Hinata's lips again. She'd want to kiss her lips. His lips, she meant – if this were Sasuke-kun. She stared at them, at how soft they looked – feminine like Ino's but smaller, more delicate. But still as enticing as...as Sasuke-kun's, she reminded herself, remembering her fantasies about the blond...no, the raven-haired boy.

Inner Sakura seemed to be holding her breath instead of cheering or commenting, like she was expecting something to happen.

Making sure she didn't put any of her weight on the unconscious girl but leaving her hands where they were, pressed firmly against the other girl's solid abdominals, Sakura started leaning over, her face getting closer and closer to Hinata's. She was losing herself in her imagination again.

Ino, no _Sasuke-kun_, would have been hurt in a fight...and she'd have saved him with her powerful medical jutsu, using up her last bit of strength. And with her final conscious effort, she'd lean over her, _him,_ and her lips...both of theirs...

Sakura's face was now inches from Hinata's, her lips almost brushing the other girl's. She swallowed quickly, licked her lips nervously, and paused again, blushing all the way to her neck as her eyes drank in Hinata's delicate, beautiful resting visage.

"Sakura," Ino breathed huskily into her ear, a lover's whisper. It sent delicious shivers down Sakura's spine, making her blush an even deeper red. Her chest felt tight and hot and she started rubbing her thighs together unconsciously. Her eyelids drooped slightly and her breathing grow more irregular. Ino dropped a gentle hand to her shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. Sakura's lips were almost touching...

"What. _Are_. You doing?"

Sakura's eyes flew open wide and she moved so fast she almost shunshined away from Hinata. Her hands left the girl's body as if it were on fire and her head snapped back upright and away from the resting princess, err, patient. Ino was standing in front of her, leaning over Sakura where she had been crouched low, almost lying on top of Hinata. Sakura's face burned and her brain ran in tiny circles trying to figure out what had just happened.

"I-I-I'm checking t-the patient's breathing!" Sakura whispered, her panicked excuse sounding lame even to her. "A-and she's breathing p-perfectly fine! So, nothing to see here!" Her blond kunoichi friend looked down, one perfectly shaped blond eyebrow slowly rising.

"I. See," she said slowly, staring at her crazy, pink-haired friend.

Sakura was looking anywhere but at either of the two girls. Her mind was a churning mess now; Inner Sakura seemed to have thrown off all her imaginary clothes and was dancing around whooping in a naked celebration – which didn't make any sense as she didn't ever _see _Inner Sakura, but she somehow just knew that that was, emotionally and metaphorically, what was happening.

But she didn't see things, of course, only _crazy _people saw things. Or heard voices in their head. No, that didn't seem like the right argument to make. Anyway, Ino was here and Hinata was safe. That was what mattered. She realized she needed to reengage the real world now.

"Ino-p-pig, what are you doing here?" Sakura demanded, still not looking her friend in the eye.

"I've come to save your gigantic forehead as usual, pinky," the blond replied with a smirk. "How's the Hyūga princess? And where's Sasuke-kun?"

Steel fingers wrapped firmly around Sakura's throat, cutting off her reply. Not daring to move, she looked down at Hinata and found the girl fully awake now, the sides of her face covered in the tiny, bulging veins of the activated Byakugan. In an instant and without making a noise, the girl, who was still lying on her back, had stolen one of Ino's kunai and reached up to capture Sakura by the throat. The knife was now held close to Hinata's body, her elbow held in correctly for quick stabbing and the blade far enough away to avoid basic counter techniques or dodges but ready to strike out at either of the girls standing above her. A frozen instant later, the crushing grip on Sakura's throat eased.

"I apologize, Haruno-san," Hinata said in a tiny, slightly sore-sounding, raspy voice. "Your hair is almost exactly the same color as that of one of my captors. I hope I did not injure you." Without moving her eyes or head, and also without fully releasing Sakura's neck, she addressed Ino. "Yamanaka-san, please do not complete that technique. I am in perfect control of myself. Also, if you tried, I would simply intercept it with Haruno-san's body. Perhaps another strategy would be better in this situation?"

Looking up again, Sakura saw the almost completed hand sign for the Yamanaka mind techniques. Ino shrugged and relaxed, dropping her hands to her sides. Hinata finally released Sakura and rolled over, pushing herself slowly back to her feet. The entire time she didn't drop her Byakugan.

"Cat?" she asked simply, pointing at the long white monster behind her without turning her head.

"A new summon of Sasuke-kun's," Ino said proudly, flaunting her superior knowledge of Sasuke-kun to the girl. "He used them and some crow summons to help track you down. One of them came back to get me – that's how I found Sakura under this genjutsu." Hinata simply nodded in reply, idly fingering the knife in her hands in a way that worried Sakura more than it really should.

"He came. He came," Hinata said over and over under her breath, her sightless-looking but all-seeing eyes staring off at nothing. She suddenly shook all over for a fraction of a second, then was dangerously still, her eyebrows scrunching together, her head twitching fractionally from side to side. Sakura realized she must be scanning the immediate area and maybe further out with her Byakugan. Hinata's grip on the "borrowed" kunai tightened fractional, the only warning sign before she turned and blasted through the underbrush with a sudden burst of speed, heading directly for where Sakura had last seen Sasuke-kun fighting the monstrously strong shinobi.

"What. The hell?" Ino asked, staring after the girl. The forest floor was smoking where it had been briefly lit on fire by the chakra-enhanced traction Hinata had used in her rapid travel. That wasn't normal – maybe she'd had some nature chakra mixed in for some reason?

"Go after her, idiots," the huge white cat said back at them in his deep voice, shaking his head as he and the black twin cats bounded after Hinata. Sakura shrugged. "Well, come on Ino-pig, you heard the cat's orders. Let's go."

Ino shook her head as she leaped after Sakura. "You're crazy, Fivehead, and I'm crazy for following you into this. I just hope Sasuke-kun is safe. I'm sure no one is strong enough to hurt him, though some of those sound guys did have some really creepy tricks..."

"What are you saying, Ino-pig? Sasuke-kun is the strongest! Nothing can beat him! I'm sure he's already won."

* * *

The Sound kunoichi's eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped like a stone a fraction of a second after Sasuke released and activated his genjutsu. The curse marks, formed of dark, corrupted chakra, faded from her skin and started retreating. Her odd crown of bone sunk back into her skin and her summons disappeared. She lay twitching on the ground now, entirely out of the fight.

Truly the Tsukuyomi was the ultimate genjutsu, the most powerful secret technique of the Uchiha clan. At least, that was what it seemed like he'd unintentionally activated – an ability mentioned only briefly in the Uchiha clan's most secret scrolls. It was actually easier to use than the Endless Garden training jutsu, the power seeming to jump into his eyes all on it's own. The weeks of practice with another complicated genjutsu had thankfully helped him figure out what was going on. After finding himself in the in-between world of his own technique, he set up the torture routine the same way he would a training scenario in Endless Garden and then let the Sound kunoichi's own mind fill in the details.

He couldn't seem to figure out how to adjust the time compression the way he knew his hated brother could, the way the scroll described masters of the art being able to, but he thought that would be enough to keep her out of the fight. It would have been useful to ruin her conscious mind with days of torture in mere seconds, trapping her in a coma. Maybe once he figured it out for the Endless Garden he could apply it to the Tsukuyomi. In any case, if it wasn't countered in about a day, Tayuya would almost certainly go insane. Which was fine with him – her survival or sanity wasn't his concern. She deserved that and worse.

Hinata was dead. The mission was over. Nothing else mattered now but his revenge. So far, one down, one to go. Turning to Kimimaro, he readied his ninjatō once again. Maybe he couldn't win, but he had a plan to take his enemy down with him. Slide in, attack with his charged sword, dodge the counter attack, take the charge back into his arm and drop the sword, let the next attack hit him, hopefully somewhere non-vital, close to lock his foe's arm, then plant a final Chidori straight into his face. His eyes suggested it was...possible. There no bone plates over Kimimaro's eyes, after all. It would hurt a lot – might even kill him – but it could also end this fight in a single blow. Preparing himself, he raised his blade and-

A roar filled the air as a red comet streaked out of the trees, impacting with Kimimaro and obscuring the two of them in a cloud of flying dirt. Sasuke froze in place, running the image his Sharingan had recorded again in his head. It looked like...like that idiot Naruto. But he was covered in a red cloud of wild, boiling chakra, complete with a glowing tail and claws made of red chakra.

"...the fuck is going on?" Sasuke asked no one in confusion, his sword dropping a little.


	21. Chapter 21

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note: **My Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

**On plot: **This is the last "action" chapter for the _Find Hinata _arc, but there will still be a sexy after-action bit for Chapter #22 to close things off and lead into the next part of the story. I'm still working on the plot for the next arc, which may result in some...interesting things in the next few chapters if I don't finish my planning in time. I wonder what the people working on the anime did when they didn't have canon from the manga, ready to turn into new episodes...ahem. Anyway, I'll let everyone know what I come up with in the notes for #22.

**__****EDIT**: Added a forum post to answer some early reviews for this chapter. I'll try to mention it next time as well. Additional answers and future chapter reviews responses will be added to the same thread, as well as the usual updates on my progress (or lack thereof) on the next chapter (see my Profile for links to the forum).

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One**

A blast of air hit Sasuke from the huge impact as the screaming sound of chakra on chakra-enhanced bone filled the battlefield. He couldn't see clearly through the dust, but it looked like Naruto was simply trying to tear through the Sound shinobi with his bare hands. Then the red-cloaked boy was flying back through a tree and Kimimaro was standing alone, panting and bleeding from a dozen wounds.

"Ah, the Leaf jinchūriki shows up at last. Impressive," Kimimaro said, his curse seal having hit what must be the second level. Huge bone horns now projected out of his back and over his shoulders. His skin had darkened and no curse marks were visible but he had large, black patches over his eyes, giving him a much more threatening and aggressive look. Most worrying of all was the huge, thick, spiked tail he now had, which had batted Naruto away so easily.

Through his powerful new Sharingan, Sasuke could see his foe's movements had slowed, but if anything he was now more dangerous looking. Kimimaro's second release form was bulkier, appeared stronger, and his bone plates seemed to have thickened even more. Possible strategies filled his mind, but Sasuke still didn't see a path to victory himself. Maybe Naruto could help with his new powers, but that brought additional complications.

Sasuke was worried now. Could that idiot Naruto really be a jinchūriki, like Gaara? Was this his special power, how the idiot had always seemed to manage to fight and win against such strong foes, ones Sasuke himself couldn't defeat? Considering how Gaara had ended up losing strategic focus, going nuts, and trying to kill everyone around him including his siblings, whether or not Naruto was really in control of his powers was rapidly became a serious concern. Of course, Kimimaro had just handily knocked him through a ten-foot thick tree. But long experience seeing the blond idiot kicked around the battlefield at the start of every fight and his new, even more powerful eyes suggested Naruto wasn't even close to finished yet. Sure enough, his chakra was spiking again.

"Still, not enough to-" started the smirking Sound ninja, then his body was flying through the air, propelled by a red blur. A slow-motion series of images lingered in his mind, captured by the incredible power of the Sharingan, showing Naruto shoving a glowing, rotating ball of energy into Kimimaro's stomach at insanely high speeds. His mind fast-forwarding back to real time, he saw them hit the ground several hundred feet away, digging a trench into the ground and throwing up more dirt and dust. Sasuke could just barely see Naruto pounding on something on the ground, his fist covered in glowing claws that seemed to be raking his foe with every strike. A second fiery red tail was now whipping above his head as he beat with both hands on his fallen opponent.

After almost a minute of uninterrupted and savage one-sided violence, Naruto reached down and started pulling on something. His red chakra pooled around his arm, along with both of his whipping tails, assisting him with whatever he was grabbing. A sickening snap was heard as far back as where Sasuke still unsteadily stood, then Naruto tossed something high in the air behind him as he moved to stand once more over the still body. Sasuke's perfect eyes could now see Kimimaro's tattered form, entirely empty of chakra. Naruto had done it – the impossibly strong shinobi was dead.

Sasuke still tracked the shape through the air, predicting exactly when and where it would land. With a dull thunk it landed and rolled several times before coming to rest a dozen feet away from him. It was Kimimaro's right arm, torn from it's socket.

Grimly looking around, Sasuke saw that Tayuya was still unconscious (continuing to live out the horrors he'd planned for her), Neji was still unconscious, Hinata was still dead, and...shit, now Naruto was stalking toward him, the grass burning around his feet. Both tails whipped behind him and there was little awareness in his eyes. It seemed that the demonic power he'd been using in the fight wasn't retreating and it wasn't at all clear that Naruto was still in control of himself.

Sasuke took a deep breath and tried to ready himself to disable his rampaging teammate before anyone got hurt. Quickly thrusting his ninjatō into the ground again, Sasuke freed his hands for quick hand seals. Maybe he could end this before things got even more out of control.

Naruto crouched down on all fours, readying himself for another thunderous leap. The claws on his hands and feet dug into the soft ground and his tails whipped behind him. Then they briefly stilled and Sasuke could see the coming attack in his mind's eye – possible responses started leafing out in his mind as he searched for the correct action to take to save his teammate's life while stopping him. Without warning, a cage made of giant rib-shaped bones shot out of the ground and crashed down again around Naruto's glowing body, crushing him flat and leaving him clawing against the dirt. Kimimaro climbed out of the earth behind him, unharmed and with both arms intact.

"Foolish little boy," he said in a low, rasping voice. "Trash like you could never defeat me. I _will_ complete my mission for master. But first, you die." His "corpse," still lying in a shallow ditch in the ground, dissolved into loose pale dirt, along with the arm in front of Sasuke. Some type of Earth clone, switched out to trick Naruto and the Sharingan. Damn.

Kimimaro's left arm started growing spikes that merged together, flowing like water and forming a larger weapon. Now wielding a long spear attached to his arm made of his massively overgrown arm bones, he stalked towards the cage where Naruto still thrashed around. Sasuke cursed under his breath as he jumped into action, still empty handed and trying to move his wounded leg faster despite it failing to respond as he demanded. Kimimaro moved in a flash, striking out with the massive spear at Naruto where he still lay raging against the chakra-enhanced ribs which were slowly, far too slowly, dissolving under his ferocious attack. Sasuke once again realized he would get there too late, his eyes showing him the bone already piercing his teammate's chest in grisly detail.

Then his eyes almost whited out from a huge wave of chakra coming from behind him, over the edge of the forest. A fraction of a second later, both he and Kimimaro were blown off their feet. Sasuke skidded and rolled along the ground, almost to where Naruto was still caged on the ground. Pieces of trees and entire sections of ground were torn lose by the enormous gale and a huge rumbling boom, a veritable wave of sound, shook the ground. Kimimaro had thrust down and dug in with his giant spear and was now riding out the storm, which was centered around him.

The grass field was suddenly and rapidly filling with flying locusts. The bugs, clearly not natural and imbued with faint chakra, were blown around by the whipping wind, but still crowded the air with a cacophonous noise, their tiny bodies collectively impossibly loud. Looking up at last, Sasuke saw a young woman hovering above him, six gigantic insect wings on her back slowly flapping. There was a Leaf ninja headband tied around her arm.

The wings beat far too slowly to actually keep her up but a single glance with his Sharingan showed the story – they were chakra constructs, with a similar glowing appearance to Naruto's red tails. She to was covered in a cloak of chakra – hers a bright, smooth, eye-searing orange, much like that idiot's stupid jacket and pants. It wasn't the horrible color but the intense, crushing _weight_ of it that impressed and, he was hesitant to admit to himself, intimidated him. He could barely stand in its presence and even Kimimaro seemed affected.

The still red-cloaked boy froze under her stare. Her eyes locked briefly to Naruto's then she spoke in a lazy, oddly crackling voice. "Mind your friend, yeah Uchiha? He's not fully in control right now, dude." Then she was _gone_, her incredible speed and the roar of the wind from her flight whipping at his body. Sasuke leaped back to where his sword was still stuck into the ground and watched the fight across the field.

Kimimaro disappeared in a haze of deadly-looking Wind jutsu, the flying woman barely visible even to his advanced Sharingan. He couldn't track her hand signs, even with his Sharingan, as she swooped and circled rapidly, firing down on her foe relentlessly. The power display was incredible and she didn't seem to be tiring. Though he knew the Sound ninja was well armored, these attacks were obviously designed to wear away his armor. In fact, with her distance from the slow, close-range shinobi, it looked like she had won this battle. Kimimaro couldn't reach her and she wasn't tiring at all. Once again, Sasuke saw that no defense was truly unassailable.

Distracted by the flying kunoichi, Sasuke almost missed when the bone cage collapsed around Naruto, suddenly freeing the wild-eyed boy – who, of course, instantly made a snarling beeline for him. There was now a huge cloud of dust around the enemy shinobi, where he was still being targeted by the unknown Leaf kunoichi's attacks. Not able to check whether this technique failing meant that Kimimaro was dead, Sasuke went with the same plan as last time – catch the idiot in a powerful genjutsu. He didn't want to use Tsukuyomi on the idiot, though, just knock him out or stun him long enough to restrain him.

Running his Sharingan to full strength, he hurried to meet Naruto's eyes, pouring as much chakra into the technique as he felt he could without becoming dangerously drained. The world shivered strangely, then all was blackness.

* * *

Sasuke opened his eyes. He wasn't sure when he'd closed them. The result was...disconcerting. He couldn't see clearly and felt a dizziness that seemed to last forever. It couldn't actually have been more than a second though before something almost audibly slid into place in his head and he was seeing clearly again.

His Sharingan was still slowly spinning (or at least felt that way) and he could see everything here was made of chakra. But it felt...distant, like he wasn't actually physically present. Searching deep inside himself, he found a connection between this place and his real body where he was once again frozen in time. This place must be inside Naruto's mind.

He stood in the middle of a wide hallway, a huge gate in front of him and, taking a quick glance over his shoulder, a series of dark corridors behind. Pipes came out of the ceiling in the shadows and ran down the various passageways, but the wider hall he was in was clear of them. The walls were rough cut stone and the ludicrously large gate was made of iron. Unlike the walls, it was finely decorated, filigreed, painted, and engraved like a rich mansion's entrance.

It seemed out of place in the slightly scruffy looking surroundings. There was no lock on the gate, which seemed to swing open in the middle, but there was a large, hand-sized paper tag high up on it. On it was written "Seal" and it covered the gap between the two sides of the gate. Sasuke got a very sudden and deep, emotional sense that so much as touching it would be a..._bad _idea. A very, _very _bad idea. His eyes showed him, even through this connection he had with Naruto's subconscious, that the seal as well as the gate and the hallway, were entirely made of chakra. _Naruto's_ chakra, mixed in with the red chakra as well. He must be inside a conceptual representation of Naruto's chakra system, projected through his subconscious mind. How annoying.

Furrowing his brow, he glanced down. He was standing in ankle-deep water, which figured really. It was unsurprising that Naruto's subconscious was a damp sewer. He was surprised, however, to see Naruto floating face down, wet from head to foot and apparently unconscious. Reaching out with his foot, Sasuke kicked his stupid teammate's internal mental representation over onto its back and waited.

It was breathing. He sighed. It figured that his teammate was too stupid to correctly remember he couldn't breathe water in his own mind. It could be worse – at least Naruto wasn't imagining himself drowning. Even with his genjutsu experience, Sasuke wasn't sure what would happen if you _thought_ you had drowned, in your own mind, because you were just that dumb. Naruto wasn't waking up anytime soon, it seemed, and Sasuke wasn't here to talk to him anyway. Stepping over his teammate's mental avatar, he kept walking towards the out-of-place gate.

As he approached, he suddenly felt a huge killing intent, a pressure that threatened to bring him to his knees. Peering into the darkness, he still saw nothing. Then he looked up. There was a huge muzzle, like from a giant animal, and two gigantic glowing slit eyes that stared down at him. It was surrounded, no, _made_ from the same red chakra that covered Naruto.

The huge creature opened its horrible mouth in a wide, toothy grin as nine tails of malevolent, glowing red chakra waved in the inky darkness behind it. Then it spoke.

* * *

Sasuke-san, that mean, arrogant, cruel genius had come. For her. Hinata didn't know exactly how she felt about that, but she would not allow her unasked-for fiancé to die before she figured it out. She knew she owed him for helping to save her but more importantly, she now realized the ultimate truth of Naruto-kun's ethics of hard work and never giving up: she would do_ anything_, no matter how dangerous or difficult,to prevent her precious people from coming to harm. And now, she realized, Sasuke-san was definitely one of those people.

She had finally reached the battlefield her Byakugan had showed her, almost a kilometer away from where she'd woken up. Hiding at the edge of the clearing, she paused with her back pressed against a tree. Working with Sasuke-san had shown her to never, ever rush into an unknown situation without careful scouting, even in the heat of battle. She took a deep breath and readied herself. Sasuke-san had been fighting someone, _something_, horribly powerful in what had appeared to be a losing battle. From the sound of it, someone was still fighting, and it was very, very noisy.

Her stomach was already hurting from that unique, mystical internal pull of an abused chakra system. The rest of her body was a mess of rapidly purpling bruises and barely functioning chakra paths. She would not stop moving so long as her arms and legs still responded but if she focused, she could probably see all the damage she'd done in the last twelve hours to her delicate internal chakra system. She only hoped she hadn't crippled herself for life, but that was something to worry about after her life and Sasuke-san's were significantly more safe.

Wishing with all her heart that she was in time to save him, she once again turned on her all-seeing eyes, using up more of her precariously small amount of remaining chakra. Sasuke-san was still standing. His chakra was low, his bright internal glow beginning to fade, but he was still alive. The feeling of a knife shoved into her heart eased a little. Taking a deep breath, she reviewed the rest of the battlefield. That horrible bitch Tayuya was down, but not dead. A shame. And...oh no! Cousin Neji! He was still breathing, thank Kami, and he didn't seem too badly hurt. There was still an unidentified thunderous noise from somewhere nearby. She widened her view, then stopped breathing for several seconds.

An orange streak was moving impossibly fast through the air. Hinata was still a little dizzy and it took her longer than it should to identify what it was. Wings, orange chakra: the strange kunoichi from Waterfall, the one with the demon inside her. Fū, that was her name.

The Sound shinobi with the monstrous chakra was being pounded into a crater in the ground by her aerial Wind element jutsu. Hinata wasted another second staring at the thunderous barrage. That was when she noticed the air was full of chakra-infused bugs and Naruto-kun was glowing with red chakra and trapped in a bone cage.

She didn't get a chance to figure out what this meant, as everything started happening at once. The Sound shinobi's chakra flickered and he started sinking into the ground, expanding strangely. Naruto-kun's bone cage cracked and snapped and he rushed straight at Sasuke-san.

He was still glowing red and his slit eyes seemed...wild, out of control. He didn't seem to recognize Sasuke-san, or if he did, he still wanted to kill him. She jumped around the tree, eyes still blazing and feet gripping the ground with chakra, trying to move fast enough to intercept Naruto-kun before he hurt anyone. She gasped as Naruto-kun crouched suddenly then leapt towards Sasuke-san, crossing the distance in an instant.

But the raven-haired boy simply stood there, calmly tracking Naruto-kun, then he ducked as the blond's now unresponsive body flew over his head to land hard at the edge of the clearing. Her hero hit the ground bonelessly, the chakra around him dissipating as he rolled to a rough stop, unconscious. She didn't turn her head, of course, and neither did Sasuke-san. Obviously too "cool" to look back at Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san kept staring straight ahead and reached for his sword, thrust into the ground at his side. Hinata kept running at full speed, eager to get to Sasuke-san's side, when she happened to notice what was happening underground.

Usually, Hyūga ignored the bottom hemisphere of their vision when at ground level. It was a bad habit that most civilians never concerned themselves with as nothing "down" was never interesting. Even the professional ninja from the branch house didn't pay attention to "down" unless they were specifically looking for traps.

Seeing everything was _tiring _and ignoring what was under their feet when they weren't flying through the trees saved them half of their attention. Most of the time, even for a ninja, it also didn't matter. Nothing usually found underground had chakra or was a threat. Sure, if one was on a mission in enemy territory and looking for traps or hidden enemies, an attentive professional would turn their attention there. But even cousin Neji, considered a genius by her clan, had apparently forgotten this and allowed brave Naruto-kun to ambush him during the Chūnin Exam finals.

Hinata, however, was not your typical Hyūga. Unlike most branch house members, she had had a very boring, very lonely childhood. With no childhood friends, not even among the other main house kids, she was isolated after her mother and uncle died, with only her baby sister to keep her company. Even cousin Neji didn't like her, didn't talk with her other than guarded formally or quiet scorn. Her only hobby, the only activity she had other than study and training, had been tending to the simple garden around her rooms and making her herbal medical salves from the results.

But even when not working among the herbs and flowerbeds with her sleeves rolled up and dirt under her fingers, aching from Jūken practice, she still used her Byakugan to track her plants progress. She found that if she looked closely enough, she could see even the developing seeds under the ground. She took to watching them grow every day, even from inside her room. When out on missions, she liked looking at the complicated root systems of the huge trees around Konoha and usually took a look at plants around the village while training or just taking a walk.

Unlike her relatives, she made it a habit to pay attention what was that hidden under the ground every time she had her eyes on, never wasting an opportunity. So she immediately saw the burst of chakra near where the Sound shinobi had gone down and the explosive growth of shadowy branches of bone, reaching for Fū-san and Sasuke-san.

"SASUKE!" she screamed as the first spears struck at the orange-cloaked kunoichi, nearest to the center of the event, but her voice was drowned out by the horrible sound of the ground breaking under the final jutsu of the powerful Sound shinobi. Fū-san took a heavy blow from the thrusting spears that seemed to bounce off her glowing chakra, sending her spiraling into the air. Apparently unhurt, she simply flew further away, avoiding the fractal shapes of the branching bone forest growing underneath her feet. But Hinata could see the branches reaching out under Sasuke-san, who was still staring at the bone thrusting out of the ground in front of him as he hopped back several quick steps. Right into the bone roots waiting underground behind him.

"Look out!" she shouted at him, just as a bone tree exploded up, rapidly generating new branches and stabbing Sasuke right through his stomach from behind and lifting him off the ground. Hinata pulled again on her burning chakra system and shunshined next to him, grabbing his ninjatō out of the ground. The trees of bone infused with chakra continued to explode from the ground around the two of them, but she couldn't safely get Sasuke out in time and more spears were heading for him as well. Every branch sent more, smaller branches out to attack them, multiplying the threat the longer they grew. She didn't have enough chakra left to even consider a Kaiten, a technique she'd never fully successfully used even in training, so she'd have to try something else.

Channeling her remaining chakra through the sword, shifting it painfully to Fire element and leaving just enough to run her Byakugan, she used its now blazing blade to slice easily through the branch spearing Sasuke-san into the air, right where they entered his back. She caught him carefully with her other arm before he hit the ground hard and aggravated his horrible injury. He was alive at least but she didn't have the attention to spare to check him further. Twisting and spinning to the ground, she waved the flaming sword through multiple bone trees in a circle, severing their trunks and thicker branches, then lay Sasuke-san carefully onto the ground she'd cleared.

Off in the distance, she saw Fū-san turn and dive, firing down at the main chakra source (which must be the Sound shinobi's twisted, chakra-filled body) with earth-shaking blows. Hinata had to return to dodging and removing the trunks of the bone trees as they appeared, a horrible, deadly trimming of a terrible forest. She didn't let any of them got close to Sasuke-san but she took several glancing blows to her arms and legs from the smaller branches as she chopped out their base, the sharpened bones leaving long gouges.

Her chakra was rapidly running out and she was having to leap around more violently to catch fully emerged trees from growing too large around them. Just when her eyes started to flicker off, she saw the source of the strange technique explode and dim. All at once the underground bone system stopped growing and its chakra rapidly started fading. Hinata stumbled to a halt, the flames on the straight sword now extinguished and her eyes off. She was leaking blood from multiple cuts and was feeling faint, but she still kept spinning, looking wildly around for another foe, another threat. She saw Fū-san circling above, this time directly with her unactivated eyes, but she had stopped firing at the ground and was coming in closer, obviously to land near Naruto-kun. She heard a groan nearby and her eyes flew to her raven-haired fiancé.

"Sasuke-san!" Hinata screamed, rushing over to where he still lay with a huge bone spear through his gut. She managed to turn her Byakugan on again just long enough to see it had missed his spine and his heart was still pumping. He groaned, obviously in great pain. Hinata slid to a halt next to him, her hands feathering just over his body as she tried to find something she could do to help.

"Leave it in," Fū yelled from the other side of the clearing where she was crouching over Naruto-kun, "removing it will only increase bleeding and tissue damage, yeah? Just don't be stupid and move it or him and the medics will be along in a few minutes to take care of him and stuff. I passed them on the way here along with the Uchiha crows."

Sasuke-san obviously hadn't heard her or was too far out of it to care. He was starting to move his hands to the long piece of bone, obviously in an attempt to pull it out himself. "No!" Hinata shrieked, moving quickly to hold down his arms. He kept struggling, however, and seemed completely out of it.

Clenching her teeth, she activated her eyes for one more pain-filled second, then jūkened both of his arms numb and motionless, hitting all of the correct pressure points as fast as possible. Collapsing to her knees next to him, she sat panting for a minute, then shifted closer, bowing until her head almost touched the ground and her face was next to his.

"You came for me," she whispered into his ear, still bowed deeply beside him. His eyes were still closed in pain, but he seemed to have stilled to listen to her. "I d-don't understand why, but you risked so m-much to save me. Please. Please don't d-die, not because of me. I'm n-not worth it."

"Heh," Sasuke-san coughed, grimacing with his eyes still closed tight, "like I would, ugh, like I would die from something like this." Opening them, he glared at her, his eyes deep black jewels, cleared of the Sharingan at last.

"And who are you to judge me or my strength? You are," he stopped to hack and cough up blood for several seconds. "You are one hundred years too early to judge the worth of me or _anything_ of mine. So shut up." Hinata started softly sobbing, her tears dripping onto the ground.

Taking a gasping breath, she lunged forward and clutched at his shirt with one hand and placed the other behind his head. She then carefully leaned over more to tightly hug his head to her soft chest. Sasuke was still unable to move with his arms disabled, so he simply lay stiffly in her arms. After a few moments he relaxed and sighed deeply.

She faintly heard more people reaching the edge of the forest. Haruno-san and Yamanaka-san were yelling something and she also heard what sounded like a lazily shouted reply from Nara-san. "So...annoying," she heard Sasuke-san say weakly into her breasts, but she didn't care and ignored it. He didn't seem to really have his heart in it that time.


	22. Chapter 22

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Notes:** I'm back! At least for a few more chapters before my life gets busy again. As I've said, I'm in this for the long haul, even if it takes years. This fic will be complete one way or another, never abandoned. Believe it.

After a huge dry spell, I didn't _want _to post a single chapter with a _horrible _cliffhanger ending like this, but the chapters are turning out so _large. _Sasuke and Hinata have a _lot _more to talk about than I'd originally expected.

So, anyway, I'll be posting again next week with another full-sized chapter, which is already fully plotted and ¾ written. After that, things get weird in my schedule again. But I have a plan! A horrible plan, taken straight from the Naruto playbook. I'll let you all know what is happening in next week's notes.

**Social media note:** As usual, my Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

As his mind drifted back from wherever it had gone, Sasuke took a series of slow, shallow, quiet breaths. He had been trained to control his reactions to prevent anyone knowing he was awake, just in case he was in a dangerous situation. Checking carefully, he could faintly smell metal oil, old blood, and, most clearly of all, the sharp tang of hospital. He hated hospitals. Though almost sure he was back in Konoha, he took care to assume nothing.

Clenching his jaw slightly, he tried hard to avoid groaning as the ghosts of his numerous bruises and lacerations made themselves apparent once again. It was painful but not cripplingly so. His head was a little fuzzy, so he was likely on pain meds right now – he'd have to be sure not to overestimate his physical abilities until he had time to carefully test himself. Which could be a problem if he was in enemy hands.

He cursed the doctors (whoever they were) for not healing everything, but he understood why. When treating a badly wounded patient, the med-nin didn't like to repair every minor scrape and bruise with medical jutsu. The human body could only take so much medical chakra at a time before it became saturated and stopped reacting to any treatment, so they limited medical jutsu use in situations where the patient might be reaching their personal saturation limit.

So if you just had some scrapes, your team med-nin could heal you right up (if they didn't have anything better to do, that is), but if you had a gaping hole in your torso, they'd leave you a little scraped up after fixing the life threatening bits, just so they'd have leeway to heal that surprise failing internal organ or two that might crop up later. That was the main reason you ever ran into ninja within the village walls still sporting minor injuries after training – it happened so often that going running to the hospital for anything that wasn't actively bleeding everywhere or broken not only wasn't worth it, but it wasn't as safe (because of buildup effects) as just cleaning it up and slapping some bandages on it, and letting it heal by itself.

And if you combined a ninja fashion statement with the quick healing properties of the fancy pre-medicated, self-activating ones sold at the best ninja equipment stores, you could even be ready to get a jump-start on healing as soon as you took even a tiny scratch.

Thinking back, Sasuke now knew why Naruto never seemed to wear them or even need to hit the hospital. That was the next issue he had to mentally sort out, as soon as his bed stopped spinning and he could take a breath without screaming. If he was back in Konoha, he'd need to have a _long_ talk with Naruto about his furry prisoner. But he wasn't about to take any major actions until he felt a lot better, so he decided to just lay there and hurt for a bit, trying to think.

The events of last twenty-four hours had been some of the strangest and most terrifying Sasuke had ever had to deal with as a shinobi. What he remembered from the last few minutes of his fight against Kimimaro were definitely the worst of the bunch, but that thing with Naruto had just been _weird_. In the end, he knew that if the real Hinata hadn't shown up alive when she did, he would likely have died to Kimimaro's final attack. That had really hurt. He could only blearily remember Hinata holding him until the medics showed up a few minutes later, which was when he had finally allowed himself to pass out.

Worse than the physical pain right now was the all-consuming confusion Sasuke still felt. He'd somehow managed to rescue Hinata, but only after thinking he'd seen her die horribly. He was just now starting to sort through the mental fallout that incident had caused, and he wasn't sure he liked the preliminary results. Remembering back to how he'd felt when he thought she was died was...unpleasant. Now that everyone was safe and he could afford the self-pity, he cursed himself for missing illusion he had fallen for, hidden from his Sharingan by the Sound bitch's chakra barrier. It was obvious that someone like Orochimaru wouldn't give up a potential resource like when he could set a clever trap instead. As for what the Snake Sannin been planning for poor Hinata...he set that aside for later, perhaps when he wasn't still feeling so weak and _emotional_ about everything.

But he still had the mystery of what the hell had happened when he'd tried to stop Naruto with his Sharingan. It was obvious now that Naruto had the Kyūbi sealed inside him, but also that he _wasn't _the Kyūbi – that must be the misconception that all the idiot villagers had, why they treated Naruto like shit. Morons. It was clear, especially looking back at his experiences, that Naruto was the warden and the jail, and the Kyūbi was his prisoner. It still wasn't clear, though, what Kyūbi actually _was_.

* * *

Looking up at the huge, glowing red eyes, Sasuke briefly thought that diving into Naruto's sewer of a subconscious was the worst idea he'd ever had. Time seemed to run differently here (or rather, not really much at all), but Kimimaro was still trying to kill them out there somewhere. This wasn't the time to back down – even if the strange flying girl was keeping him busy right now, Sasuke needed to resolve this fast. Naruto was acting really strange, even for him, and was clearly out of control.

The physical changes were also extremely worrying. It reminded Sasuke too much of Gaara and his horrific transformations. Felt similar, too. The red chakra gave off the same dark malevolence, but Naruto had lacked the most extreme of the physical changes. Like becoming as large as a mountain. And this _thing_ staring down at him, made entirely of chakra, was surely the source of that dark power and Naruto's berserk madness. He needed to figure out what it was and shut it down, otherwise he might be forced to kill his stupid teammate. Sasuke also knew, with burning shame, that he hadn't been fast enough or strong enough to save Hinata. He wasn't going to lose Naruto too. He had lost enough today.

Pretending he was ten times as composed as he actually was, Sasuke glared up at the caged beast's huge glowing eyes. Looking at the swishing, glowing tails and the giant maw, it all finally clicked: stories of mythical Tailed Beasts, recent encounters with a Jinchūriki, the archive reports of the night the Uchiha clan hid in fear underground, and his father, warning him away from Naruto just before he died.

"Hn. Kyūbi," he grunted, scorn clear in his voice. "What an ugly cage for an ugly beast." the Kyūbi roared in rage and beat his paws against the bars of the giant doors. They barely shock, even under the thunderous assault.

"I don't know what you're doing to Naruto," Sasuke said more calmly than he felt, "but you will stop it. Now." At this, the beast stopped attacking the door and started letting out a hissing laugh.

"**Huhuhu, you think you can defeat me, little Uchiha? You are one **_**thousand**_** years too-**" Sasuke slowly closed his eyes and then opened them again, his Mangeku Sharingan active.

"**Those eyes!**"growled the huge, toothy face in rage. "**I'll kill you, brat! Just come a little closer...**"

Sasuke felt the added pull on his chakra from the secret and ultimate level of the Sharingan, knowing he couldn't keep it up long. Then, instead of a complicated or powerful jutsu, he activated a simple Genjutsu through his eyes, focusing on the Kyūbi's own giant glowing orbs. It was an easy technique to throw off normally, but if the rumors he'd read in the archives were correct...

"**No!**" screamed the Kyūbi, enraged even further but now frozen in place. "**Release me now, you pitiful, mor****t****al **_**worm**_**!**"

"Hn," Sasuke scoffed, holding a single focusing hand seal casually in front of chest. "This is the power of my Sharingan. You cannot resist. Now bow before me and release Naruto from your power."

The giant Tailed Beast was clearly visible now in his cage, the shadows drawing back as its body glowed even brighter. The huge fox groaned in pain as its limbs bent against its will, lowering its body to the ground. When its head finally touched the floor, it let out a deafening roar and its whole body shock.

"**I WILL KILL YOU!**" the beast screamed, thrashing its tails, but unable to move an inch.

"I think not," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Release Naruto. Now."

"**NEVER!**" it screamed back. Still holding the hand sign, Sasuke looked back at Naruto's mental avatar, still lying unconscious and wet in the water, and decided he needed to do more to break the Kyūbi's hold.

"Fine," Sasuke said, stepping forward, "I'll just come in there and beat you unconscious. That should break your control."

"**NO! STAY OUT!**" the Kyūbi screamed. Sasuke hesitated for a moment, surprised by the fear in the beast's voice, but then continued walking through the large gaps between the bars of the cage. The Kyūbi roared again, loud enough to shake the floor, then Sasuke's other foot hit the ground and he was fully inside the cage. His eyes hurt for a second, then he was standing somewhere else.

* * *

Wrenching his mind back to the present and taking several more careful lungfuls of air, Sasuke tried to identify his surroundings, keeping his eyes closed and cautiously augmenting his hearing with a trickle of chakra to his ears. There was a soft sliding noise, cloth on metal. Someone breathing quietly. The rustle of clothing, in time with the sliding action. Beginning to open his eyes a fraction, he froze when a low, soft voice spoke out.

"I am glad to see that you are awake, Uchiha-san."

Opening his eyes fully, he saw Hinata sitting demurely on a chair next to his bed, slowly cleaning a sword. The same sword he'd used in that frantic fight. It was now clean of blood and dirt and shone brightly in the fading late-afternoon light. She was wearing a hospital robe and appeared to have her arms wrapped with clean bandages. More bandages peeked out the bottom of her robe down to her ankles, just above some hospital slippers.

"What happened?" he croaked out with a bone-dry throat. Hinata looked up and carefully watched him reach for a glass of water that was sitting on the table beside his bed before answering.

"After the med-nin team arrived, you were placed in a chakra-induced coma for treatment and transport," she said softly while finishing the final steps of cleaning the sword. "You had severe chakra depletion bordering on total exhaustion, a huge hole in your torso, damage to multiple internal organs, and several other minor wounds. So they had to stabilize you first."

Frowning, she quietly added, "You almost died in the field, Uchiha-san."

She flicked the soft cloth to the tip of the blade one last time, then used her teeth as a third hand to hold a clean corner of the white square. She then picked up a damp-looking cloth and ran it over the blade from guard to tip, wiping both sides. Setting aside both scraps of fabric, she picked up a brand-new looking, shiny black leather scabbard with the Uchiha symbol on it. Locking her eyes to his, she gracefully flipped the scabbard around, lined it up, and sheathed the sword in one smooth, practiced motion.

"All other members of your and Nara-san's team are alive and relatively unharmed," Hinata continued, placing the sword and cleaning items on a small table next to his bed and slowly, painfully standing. She appeared to have a rib injury that was still bothering her, but she maintained a stuff posture of formal attention, still looking him straight in the eye.

"Three Hyūga clan shinobi also assisted Haruno-san in tracking and were severely injured," she said softly, forcing Sasuke to strain to hear her. "They are expected to recover fully. As for the enemy, several Sound ninja, including all members of the so-called Sound Four, were taken alive and are currently being interrogated. The...the monster who almost killed you is confirmed killed. That is all the information I have, Uchiha-san – further details are classified beyond our level.

"As I was returned safe to the village and the kidnappers were captured, Hokage-sama has declared a completely successful mission. A bonus bounty will also be paid out to the rescue team for the capture of several high-profile targets with the potential for valuable intelligence." Hinata seemed to trail off, her prepared list of information exhausted. Hesitating awkwardly, she started to speak several times but failed to actually vocalize any words. Swallowing nervously, she finally spoke again, this time with a stronger voice.

"Uchiha-san, you will be in the hospital for a few more days of monitoring but are expected to fully recover. Your injuries are among the worst suffered. And...and you are hurt because you had a mission to rescue me. I am sorry to have caused such inconvenience. Thank you for saving me, Uchiha-san." She bowed low and formally, her eyes on the floor.

Sasuke lay there hurting for several more seconds, watching Hinata hold her bow. His eyebrows drew together and a snarl slowly grow on his lips. Seeing her act so weak was beginning to piss him off, especially since he knew she was stronger than this.

"How did you allow yourself to be captured?" he growled cruelly.

Hinata, who had been starting to rise, froze, her hands balling into tightly shaking fists then suddenly relaxing. She didn't look up.

"I encountered those four Sound ninja just before they attacked you and was able to escape without injury," he drawled, seeing her discomfort. "In fact, I was reporting the encounter to the Hokage at the same time as you were being so easily subdued. Did you even fight back when you were captured?" She straightened up woodenly, face expressionless, then simply stood there silently, staring at the wall on the other side of the room with her fingers clutching the fabric of her robe. Seeing her vulnerability clearly, he pressed his advantage.

"Are all Hyūga so weak?" he said, his nasty smirk slowly growing. "Your clan members who joined in our mission were useless and only slowed us down. And weren't you being watched? Or was your pathetic bodyguard also so weak and-"

Hinata was suddenly leaning over his bed, gripping his thin hospital gown by its loose collar with both hands and bodily lifting him off the mattress. She had been standing several feet away from his bed, but now his face was inches from her own. He could clearly see the veiny chakra paths indicating an active Byakugan. Otherwise, her face was smooth and expressionless.

Sasuke had reflexively grabbed her forearms, which he blearily realized were somehow both softly feminine and as firm as steel. Just as he started to run his hands distractedly over her soft arms to find and feel more of her muscles, he realized what he was doing with a start and immediately let go. This left him hanging from her grasp, staring up at her in confusion and surprise. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have noticed his distraction.

"I apologize for interrupting you, Uchiha-san," she finally said softly, her peaceful-sounding voice belying her violent response, "but I cannot allow you to speak ill of my friend like this. You are, of course, correct to speak of myself and my clan as you will. That is your right. But while in my presence, please do not say such things about by bodyguard and handmaiden, Suzume Hyūga, or any of my other friends or teammates.

"Suzume-san put her life on the line to protect me and I was only captured because I froze when we were ambushed. The fault is not hers. It is mine." Her cold, pale eyes, sightless-looking but all-seeing, unflinchingly speared him, but her small hands had started to shake. It was not exhaustion, however, but emotions that were breaking through her otherwise firm composure.

"She is my precious friend and I would do anything to protect her, but she is now lying in a bed in this hospital," Hinata almost whispered to him. "Her career as a kunoichi is in question now due to her injuries. What she must think of me and my cowardly actions..." Hinata trailed off, face contorting in pain.

"This, all of this, is because of my shameful weakness," she stated, jaw clenched as she glared a hole through him. Sasuke stared in shock at the young kunoichi who seemed seconds away from either breaking into tears or simply beating him unconscious with her fists. At that moment, he wouldn't bet money either way. He was just glad she wasn't holding anything sharp.

"I-I-" Sasuke started to stammer, wide-eyed and panicked. Gathering himself together once more, mentally putting back on his cloak of disinterest, he managed to shove down his weak little emotions like the rules of a ninja stated one should.

"Fine. Whatever. Just leave," he said coldly, turning to one side and avoiding her eyes. Hinata jerked back as if struck – he swayed, still hanging from her tight (if increasingly shaky) grip on his clothes.

"I am s-sorry, I did not mean to...I was not-" she stammered out. She then took a deep, shuttering breath..

"I am sorry Uchiha-san," Hinata choked out in a gasp. He was suddenly dropped from her quivering fingers and fell sharply against the wall behind his bed, banging his head rather badly. Letting out a low groan, he clutched his bruised head with one hand as he slid slowly back to the mattress. Hinata wasn't paying attention to this and simply stood there, her eyes staring at her feet but still seeing everything, her hands hanging loosely at her side.

"I am s-sorry for being a burden," she said in a broken voice. "I am sorry I f-failed and caused you so m-much trouble. I w-will leave you alone n-now. M-Maybe it would be b-best if we canceled our...our training arrangement. P-Please get well soon, Uchiha-san."

Hinata turned to leave with her head hanging low. Sasuke suddenly caught his breath, realizing his hand had just reached out to stop her, his body moving by itself. Remembering that she still had her Byakugan active, he cursed himself silently. Had she seen that? He had to be more careful and not react in such a pathetic way.

But he realized failing emotional control wasn't the most important thing right now. Hinata was walking out on him, trying to leave him behind, as if he wasn't worth her time. As if he wasn't strong enough to bother training with. He could always continue his training by himself. He had before and could again. But, for once, that didn't feel _right_.

If a Yamanaka was present, they might see his father and his brother were somewhere in the back of his mind, ignored by his conscious thoughts. Memories of how they'd abandoned him to train by himself. How lonely it had been. How much he'd wished his father had trained him, like he had with his older brother. How much he had wanted his older brother to notice him, to train with him. How much he missed his family. But Sasuke wasn't that introspective, and no one was currently using a jutsu to walk his mind. He simply knew he suddenly hurt, and it was Hinata's fault.

When Sasuke finally replied, just as she was reaching for the door, his emotions were greatly confused. The sudden tight feeling in his chest was far more painful than were his remaining, negligible physical injuries, and it was that which drove him to strike back at her verbally.

"Go ahead," he snapped angrily, "run away, little Hyūga. You're obviously too afraid of the enemy to ever be a true kunoichi. If you can't handle real training and simply freeze in the face of danger, you are worthless as a ninja of the Leaf. You _should_ quit. That would save the lives of brave ninja who'd be forced to pick up the slack and rescue you over, and over, and over again." Almost shouting now, Sasuke had propped himself up on one elbow, glaring daggers at Hinata's back. She still had her Byakugan on. He knew she could see him.

Hinata was now as still as a statue, one hand extended to reach for the door. He knew she was watching him, listening to his hateful words, and he wanted to hurt her. He wanted to hurt her like she was going to hurt him by leaving.

"Your teammates would be glad to be rid of you. Maybe they'll even thank you for leaving," he said with a dark laugh. "So yes! Run and hide, and live the safe and pathetic life of a princess. You coward."

He tensed, ready to activate his Sharingan and defend himself, expecting another explosion of violence as Hinata slowly turned and walked back to the foot of his bed. Instead, her eyes were staring out the window, off into the distance at something he couldn't see from where he lay. He saw that her Byakugan was still active, so whatever she'd faced to physically look at must have been beyond her special visual range. Whatever, that didn't matter, because-

With a sudden gasp, he finally noticed that her robe had partially opened in front, and that she had nothing but the same thin hospital gown he wore under it. With an almost unconscious gesture, he activated his Sharingan at a low (and hopefully safe for his recovering body) power level. He could feel the pull on his chakra system more than usual, but there wasn't the sharp ache he associated with dangerous levels of exhaustion, so he should be safe for now. And it was for a good cause.

Hinata was a vision of beauty. His eyes were not sufficient to truly undress her in his mind, but his Sharingan, combined with the thin clothing, left little to the imagination. Look at her was...stunning, and he was still mentally reeling when she finally spoke.

"Perhaps I was not clear, Uchiha-san," she said, voice calm, soft, and barely audible. "Please allow me to explain myself completely." Her hands no longer shook or clutched her clothing, and she stood tall as she confronted him. This also thrust her barely covered chest out distractingly and his brain stuttered as it started to run complicated geometric calculations on curves, slopes, and hidden, pale ivory surface areas, all on its own.

As he frankly and openly stared at her chest, one extraordinarily adventurous part of his mind was even working on calculations for the tearing strength required to deal with the gown so cruelly obscuring her breasts, perhaps encouraged in some part by Kakashi's perverted porn novels. Sasuke had accidentally seen..._things _several times, training with his sensei while using his Sharingan.

The white-haired idiot would be holding the book in one hand while Sasuke had to do horrible training katas, run wind sprints upside-down in the trees, or practice obscure hand-sign combinations over and over again, and sometimes Sasuke would end up glancing over and catching a look at it. The perfect memories of several highly-erotic pages were, unfortunately, burned into his mind forever at this point by his active Sharingan. He thought Kakashi might have done that on purpose.

Whatever the cause, the clothing removal mental planning project, along with the spatial mapping ones, ended early due to insufficient mental resources as Sasuke gradually started to regain control of his breathing and more wild thoughts. Something important was happening – he had just been insulting an emotionally unstable trained killer, she was responding oddly, and he needed to pay better attention _right now_. The three tomoe in his eyes continued to slowly wheel as he forced his gaze back up to her face, seeing that she'd turned off her Byakugan again.

"I do not intend to remove myself from active duty, nor will I abandon my team," she continued firmly. She shook her head slowly. "I am willing to fight and I will no longer hesitate. I have also gained incredibly valuable knowledge from my training with you and I am grateful from the bottom of my heart that you came to rescue me. I simply do not intend to put you in a situation where you are hurt again because of my weakness. I refuse to be a burden and endanger you again." Pausing to take a deep breath, she continued.

"Even...even my fight against my kidnappers has taught me much. That I am valued by my friends and teammates, my clan, and the rest of the village. That I can rise to the challenge of the moment, regardless of how scared I am. But most of all, I have learned that I am no longer as afraid as I once was that I will be captured or killed by the enemy. Before, that fear all but consumed me." Hinata slowly walked back to her chair and carefully sat down again.

Sasuke wrenched his mind and still-spinning eyes with sheer force of will from her slightly swaying hips and mesmerizing breasts. Her Byakugan wasn't active anymore, but she would surely notice his staring if he didn't control himself better.

Fidgeting nervously in her chair, she finally pulled her legs up onto the seat, sitting sideways with her ankles drawn up beside her. This almost stopped Sasuke's heart as the thin hospital robe bunched and rode up her legs past her knees. He came close to spraining his neck looking away.

"When I was three," she hesitantly started, "I...I was kidnapped by a Cloud shinobi who was visiting the village, his mission disguised as part of some peace talks. Because of that incident, my uncle was sacrificed to save the village. I am sure, as a clan heir, that you are well aware of this incident. The details were publicly exposed at the Chūnin Exam Finals, though you had not yet arrived at that point, so I am not exposing any clan secrets."

Out of the side of his eye, he saw her take a deep breath, staring out into the middle distance of room just like she did when seeing everything at once with her Byakugan. He was starting to feel even more of a pull on his abused chakra coils from leaving the Sharingan on, but it was small enough that he figured it couldn't be doing him any harm yet. It was a natural molding of internal chakra, unlike the external use of jutsu, and was therefore easier on the system – at least in this low-power, passive mode.

"Soon after that incident," she said, "my mother died of an incurable illness. I was...I was heartbroken, and became terrified of death and of the idea of being taken from my family again. My training suffered greatly, but I had to continue, as it was required of the clan heir to learn the family style. When my cousin Neji joined the Academy, I finally realized what I wanted – to become stronger, more like him. To live with self-confidence, and without fear. That was when I asked my father to enroll me in the Academy as well. You have met my father, so maybe you have some idea how well that conversation went." He heard her pause and sigh softly.

Sasuke could feel his heart beating faster as he stared across the room, trying to avoid looking at Hinata and the pale, muscular thighs that were now peeking out from under her robe as it fell away from her legs. Her large but well-toned calves were wrapped with white bandages that ended just below her knees, leaving everything above in stark contrast.

Kami help him, even her knees were somehow both sturdy looking and cute. He latched onto them as something safer to think about. The hidden, swelling curve of her thighs and their eventual, inevitable, and topographically confusing and long hypothesized (but never before seen) juncture at her hips wasabsolutely _not _to be allowed a single moment's thought.

Which was why he _immediately _thought of nothing else. His breathing hitched and his Sharingan slowly spun as he reviewed all the obscured, partial information he had from his training session with her. His superior bloodline abilities allowed his mind to combine Sharingan-recorded data about tight training pants, katas with high kicks, and both warmup and cool-down stretching exercises.

Then he had a revelation: he hadn't yet even begun to consider the posterior component of his growing three-dimensional model of Hinata's anatomy. His last resistance (and his attention) was lost for good in a flood of images of firm, flexing rear ends, only to be replaced by other memories of her in motion and the resulting artistry of her entire body.

The Hinata in his mind was covered in a light sheen of sweat from training. Her skin glistening, almost glowing. One of those perverted Uchiha kunoichi uniforms was stretched tight against her breasts as she practiced her katas. The clothing supported and contained, but did not obscure much at all as her arms snapped out dozens of killing blows in rapid succession.

She also wore the uniform's training pants, which clearly showed every detail of her tight rear. In his imagination, her hips swayed as her legs seemed to dance her around imaginary foes, a look of quiet concentration on her face. Thoughts of her held him in a trap as powerful as any genjutsu and he completely failed to pay attention as Hinata poured out the rest of her life story to him.

An unknown time later, he drifted back from a very happy place and was finally paying attention again. He had no idea how long he'd been in that daze but he quickly turned off his Sharingan and shifted on the bed to try to sit up more and hide the...problem he was currently experiencing. Hinata was still speaking and didn't appear to be annoyed, so he couldn't have been daydreaming too long.

"...and that was when I realized that even though Naruto-kun was shunned and hated by everyone at school, he still tried to be the best ninja he could and would never give up. I then decided I would never give up either, so instead of telling my father I'd made a mistake wanting to become a ninja, I simply held tighter to my resolve to become stronger and vowed to try hard every day to make my dream a reality.

"When you agreed to let me train with you, I finally learned what I needed to no longer be afraid. You showed me the last thing I needed for my way of the ninja." She looked over at him with a small smile and he finally managed to once again meet her eyes. He kept himself expressionless until he figured out what exactly was happening and how he should feel about all of it anyway.

"Hn," he replied, stalling for time.

"I didn't give up when those Sound ninja took me. I fought back, even though it seemed hopeless. I didn't give up because of you, Uchiha-san," she concluded proudly. "You showed me I needed to be strong enough in mind and body to defend myself and my ideals and fight back for what I believed in. And even though I am still weak, I know what I need to do. That is why it is okay if I cannot train with you anymore." She frowned sadly and looked away again.

Rapidly reviewing what he'd picked up with his ears but not paid attention to, he quickly had all the important parts organized: mom and uncle dead, afraid of death and another kidnapping, timid and didn't want to hurt her sister in training so she was stupidly losing political power in her clan (which lead to his current marriage situation, Kami damn it), Naruto was her inspiration as a ninja (figures), she wasn't very good at the clan style because her father sucked at training her (the bastard), and she grew up with the killer instinct of a lightly stunned lamb (which he already knew), a problem she apparently had had until he started training with her. That was...actually rather interesting, especially the last bit, but he still wasn't understanding her.

"Hn," he said noncommittally, growing more confused the more she said.

"I read the initial After Action Report summary and analysis for the mission," she added quietly. "Father let me read a draft copy. The conclusion is that they took me specifically to get you into that ambush. Maybe they also wanted my...my...but that wasn't their primary objective or-" she closed her eyes and paused for a moment.

"Or I would likely have been left blind and bleeding out on the ground, or even dead in a shallow grave, long before you caught up. I might still have suffered that fate, if not for Sakura's help in staying hot on my trail. The point is, I was the bait for you.

"They must have known that not only was I betrothed to you, but that I was helping you train. Because of that, they likely assumed that...that you would come for me because we were, uh, closer, like...like teammates are." She gripped her knees with white-knuckled fingers.

"I cannot do anything about our betrothal, but if we were not working together so closely, it would be less likely that your enemies would think that they could get to you through me. I am not that important, but I don't want you to get hurt again because of me." She was clearly crestfallen, but she also seemed oddly determined. Sasuke was obviously missing something here, so he decided to ask some probing questions.

"Why do you care?" he asked plainly. She looked at him like he'd suddenly hit her with a medium-strength genjutsu of Gai and Lee posing in front of a sunset.

"B-because I do. I mean, I care about you, Uchiha-san, and I don't want you to be hurt because I am a burden," she said, quietly shocked he would even ask.

"Do you think we are friends or something?" he asked grimly. Her eyes grew wider and she started fumbling her hands together.

"I wouldn't, I mean, uhh," she stammered. "W-we are like teammates because we work together, but I don't...I wouldn't presume..."

"If we are like teammates, then why would you quit training?" he asked simply.

"To protect you-" she started.

"Foolish," he interrupted angrily, slicing the air with his hand. "Those who abandon their teammates are lower than scum. There is no excuse. Do you think not having proper training will somehow assist me in fighting my enemies? If someone can help me become stronger, I would be stupid not to take advantage of them. If they are weak and in danger because of me, I will simply have to become strong enough to protect them."

"I-I see," she said, worrying her hands together and looking befuddled.

"No, I don't think you do," he sneered. "Look underneath the underneath: what was Orochimaru attempting to do by stealing you away? Perhaps he wanted the Byakugan, sure. His evil medical experiments are well known to the Uchiha. But more than that, he wanted to entice me to do something foolish in an attempt to get you back. He knew you had value to me or he wouldn't have kidnapped you as he did. Avoiding being seen with me now won't fool him. But I don't care what my enemies foolishly try to do, I will not let them harm my clan."

"B-but how, if even with an experienced ninja like Suzume-san-" she started to stammer out.

"If she failed in her mission, it was because she was too weak," he barked. "If you failed to protect her yourself, it was because you were too weak. But do not attempt to cover for her incompetence with your own."

Hinata leapt unsteadily to her feet again. "Do not say things like that about Suzume!" she shouted at him angrily while activating her Byakugan again, most likely without consciously intending to.

"If she doesn't want to fail, she should train harder and become stronger, and so should you!" he yelled back from where he sat on the hospital bed, also unconsciously activating his Sharingan again in anger. "She has no excuse and neither do you!"

Parts of Sasuke that he had thought were back under control twitched when he noticed that Hinata's robe had now come entirely open at the front. Her gown barely came down to mid thigh and was very tight against her large breasts. Her chest was heaving as she yelled at him, doing interesting things to the soft flesh.

"You are always so mean, Uchiha!" she screamed (which for her was a moderately raised voice). "It is just too cruel to suggest that training with you will ever make me strong enough! It is heartless! We both know I will always be too weak to truly protect my family and the people I love, like you and Suzume-san, from people like Orochimaru's elite ninja. You are so strong and even you almost died fighting Kimimaro. I am always a burden, so what hope do I ever have protecting people so strong?"

"To achieve my goals, I will do whatever it takes!" he shot back. "That's why I've been training with you! That is why I still need your strength – the same strength you used against Kimimaro's ultimate attack, the strength you used to save my life, the strength to never give up.

"That is why I was able to fight off that snake bastard's ninja to get you back. I can't lose you- I mean, I need you for my plan to succeed. Training with you is how I am going grow strong enough to protect my clan, kill my hated brother, and reclaim my family's honor!" Sasuke growled, glaring at her maddeningly perfect breasts.

It was very hard-_no_, Kami damn it. It was _difficult_ to argue with her because of the effect she was having on him. Sure, there were girls during the last year of the Academy who'd dressed up, showing off their skin blatantly, sometimes with barely anything covering their pathetically tiny boobs. A few even tried to rub themselves against him, which had both confused and disgusted him before he had quickly and skillfully escaped their grabby hands. But none of that had ever caused him to...to become _like this_. This was something he'd never had to deal with before, this aching _need_,and it was all Hinata fault!

Usually, it was just something that briefly happened to him, seemingly for no reason, and then it went away on its own. He knew what the male body did – he'd had a class at the Academy and everything about it, and had aced the test of course – so it wasn't like he was surprised by his erection. But this time it was very uncomfortable, it wasn't going away for good with her here, and it was distracting him from what she...was...saying.

"Huh," he thought, his brain reengaging again. "What did she just say?" He blinked slowly and drew his eyebrows together in confusion.

"W-wha, d-do you...you..." Hinata said slowly, confusion also on her face. "You t-think I am strong? You, you _need _me?"

"Wait," Sasuke muttered, not paying attention to what she'd just said but instead running over her previous shouted comments. "You _love _me?"

Hinata started to respond, blinked several times in surprise, then actually physically looked down at Sasuke with her Byakugan still active, her eyes growing wide. She suddenly jerked back several steps, almost knocking over her previously abandoned chair. Her face instantly went from angry and splotchy to a horrified deep red. She covered her face with her hands, deactivated her Byakugan, and stumbled back away from him, toward the far wall. Sasuke opened and closed his mouth several times before finally saying something out loud.

"Uh. Of course you are strong," he said, running his hand through his hair nervously, wondering what the hell was happening. He couldn't seem to look at Hinata right now. "Otherwise you, uh, would not...be worthy to train with me. I don't, err, think you are a burden, Hina-err, Hyūga. You are, uh, obviously a strong kunoichi or I, uh, I wouldn't have any use for you."

Hinata was shaking her head, still covering her brightly blushing face with her hands, apparently unwilling to look at him either.

"I, err...what did you mean when you said..." he trailed off, looking back at her strange reaction. Sure, it had sounded like she'd said...but that was too much, wasn't it? Maybe she meant he was like her teammates or her family? Still turned away from him, Hinata leaned heavily into the wall and seemed unsteady on her feet.

"U-Uchiha-san...I am sorry, I...I did not mean to...I meant no disrespect but I...I should not have..." she said, stumbling around verbally and making no sense at all.

"Hyūga, I can't understand. Say it plainly," he said shortly, starting to get annoyed again.

"I-I am s-sorry," she said in a stammer. "I did not m-mean to notice. I-I saw..._it_." Sasuke was still confused.

"I don't-" he started to say, then horror struck as he remembered some of the early, failed Endless Garden training sessions where he'd accidentally received Byakugan-style views of Hinata. Those glitches in their shared illusion had showed him Hinata as she saw herself (and everyone else) with her Byakugan on – that is, entirely naked. Such was the power of the Byakugan. Right now, there was a lot of him to see, as he was currently very, very-

"I j-just," Hinata said, almost crying while trying desperately to explain. "W-when it is active, I c-cannot help it! And I just...saw...please forgive me, U-Uchiha-san!" Sasuke had no immediate response, and could only think how unfortunate it was right now that he didn't know any suicide jutsu.


	23. Chapter 23

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Notes: **Looks like I couldn't get everything into this chapter. I just ran out of time and space. So instead of a bloated, poorly revised chapter, I'll just push the end of this part of the plot to next week along with the "season ender" parts I'd originally intended to have in this chapter. Not all questions are answered but it'll set up my next, gleefully awful ideas.

I'm also thinking about making the end of this part of the plot the end of _this_ fic. As in, the next part will be a new, separately published fic. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I'd be starting the next story immediately, so that shouldn't be an issue. I am thinking about this right now because I'm already at a large, unedited novel-sized fic in word count.

**Notes on Author: **As usual, my Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Fifteen...sixteen...seventeen times he'd almost been killed in that last mission. None of them really close calls, as his team was backing him up perfectly. No one really thought someone that looked like him was a threat in a crowd and he didn't stay still long enough to make anyone think he was an easy target. Still, multiple dodged killing blows from thrown weapons, Naruto's clone pulling him behind a tree once to avoid a sword swing from his blind spot that might have connected, and Ino saving his lazy ass by throwing a possessed Sound ninja's body in front of a huge Fire jutsu. It was all very troublesome.

"Nara-san, your mission report is complete, if low on details," the Hokage said, putting down the paperwork on her desk. Returning immediately to the present, he stood a little more at attention, his hands at his sides instead of in his pockets for once. Something about almost getting yourself and other people killed mere hours ago brought things like protocol into focus. At least, it seemed less troublesome to do so right now.

"Can you expand on, say, the Uchiha's contributions to this mission?" the Hokage queried, her mouth quirking up a little.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," he said. Remembering his "report-speak" from countless Chūnin classes on how to sound important, he continued, "Uchiha-san successfully executed all mission objectives. As anticipated, a hot pursuit situation required that he advance ahead of the main force to acquire and engage the kidnappers and recover the target safely. We covered him by engaging the ambush forces in support of this action."

"By target, you mean Hinata Hyūga?" she interrupted. He sighed.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Because of his proactive stance, she was rescued successfully and with minimal casualties. The kidnappers and ambushing enemy forces were neutralized by the rest of the strike force and the mission was a success. The only unexpected element was the low-Jōnin level Sound shinobi with an odd bloodline who was sent in as backup. Thankfully, Fū-san was able to defeat him. Fighting that opponent without her help, even with the entire team, would have been...troublesome. We would likely have suffered significant casualties."

"More significant than Sasuke Uchiha?" she asked, face expressionless. Shika winced.

"Not what I meant, Hokage-sama," he responded with another sigh.

"Get used to pointed questions like that," she said wryly. "One of the village darlings got hurt under you command. You'll take some heat from that. On the other hand, the Hyūga are still angry that the council advised against authorizing ANBU or even the chūnin corp for the mission. You've earned some serious political points with them by pulling off the impossible." Shika shrugged, uninterested in the complicated and troublesome game of Konoha politics.

"Good thing the mission was almost perfect and Sasuke will make a quick and full recovery," she said. "Some of the failure cases for this mission were grim. Hinata's kidnappers getting away with her or the last Uchiha dying would have been..._very __bad_ for your career. Both of ours, now that I think about it." She grinned at him and he relaxed a little, finally slouching a bit and putting his hands in his pockets.

"The recovery was a little...rough," she said. Thoughtful tapping her chin with one elegantly painted finger, she asked, "Any idea why Hinata ran after Sasuke in the first place? That wasn't in the initial reports and no one has interviewed Hinata yet."

"Ino said Hinata used her Byakugan immediately after regaining consciousness," he said. "She saw Sasuke fighting the Sound shinobi a kilometer away then went to help in the fight." The Hokage muttered something about "kids" and sighed.

"Is that so?" she said with a sigh. "Well, whatever. Turned out okay. Since she wasn't actually assigned to the mission, being the mission _herself_, she wasn't technically disobeying any orders."

"That all?" she asked, already reaching for some more paperwork.

"There was something else, Hokage-sama," he said slowly, not sure how to approach the subject. She nodded for him to continue. "My teammate, Ino, said something happened during the mission. Something...odd." He noted that the Hokage had tensed for an instant before covering the reaction. Interesting.

"Was Sasuke mean to her?" she asked with a smirk, suspiciously casual now. Very interesting.

"No, this was something with Sakura," he said, also casually, but better disguising it because he was _always_ casual. The Hokage didn't visibly react.

"Ino says she had a sort of a...spaced-out moment after moving Hinata to a secure location," he continued. "It wasn't anything that interfered with the mission, as both Ino and Sakura were fully in control of the situation when Hinata...decided to go after Sasuke. Ino didn't give me any details, but she seemed a little concerned about it. The Yamanaka don't normally do routine after action psychological reviews, but given how stressful this mission was, and how Sakura was acting strange, Ino suggested..." he trailed off, waiting for the Hokage's response.

Looking down at her desk, she shuffled some of the papers, made a note, then looked up and nodded. "Done. She'll be assigned a Yamanaka mind healer instead of the usual chūnin during psych debrief. Good attention to detail, Nara-san."

"Yeah yeah," he drawled lazily. "Having Ino's trained kunoichi frenemy go crazy would be...troublesome." Rolling her eyes at him, she made a shooing motion. "Dismissed, Shikamaru. Get out of here and get some rest. You deserve it." Making a sketchy bow, he slouched out of the Hokage's office.

All the way to the door he wondered why the Hokage was personally worried about Sasuke. Other than the obvious, of course, he thought with a smirk. He made several mental notes on things to follow up on, then switched his mind into neutral.

Walking out of the Hokage's tower, he wondered whether or not it had anything to do with the strange, dark chakra he had vaguely sensed around the Uchiha, just before the mission started. Increasingly interesting, but it was time for some serious not doing anything. The Uchiha's secrets could wait.

* * *

Sasuke uselessly held his hands over his embarrassingly tumescent crotch. Though he'd thought himself hidden by the sheets, he'd forgotten that the Byakugan saw through everything around the user, rendering clothes and even walls mostly see-through shadows.

This allowed users to see everything inside the range of their powers, all side of objects from all perspectives. _Everything_. So even though users of the Byakugan must by necessity ignore nudity on a regular basis, Hinata had still gotten a clear, complete, three-dimensional look at his erection, straight through the sheets and his clothing.

"I-I'm so s-sorry," Hinata said with a whimper. She was still turned away, leaning heavily into the wall.

"I'm sure you didn't, uh...okay, just...w-whatever," he babbled, blushing madly and trying to disappear into the bed. Not that that would have worked against the Byakugan.

"N-no, it is _not _okay!" Hinata said, her back still turned to him. "Y-you have a right to your privacy, Uchiha-san. Even if I saw..._it_, I should not...one isn't supposed to say anything about what one sees. One is never supposed to _notice_." She turned around, her index fingers poking together in front of her chest and her face still bright red.

"Hn," Sasuke replied, at a loss for anything else to say. The room was silent for several moments. Hinata took a deep, shaking breath.

"Was...was _it_ because of me, Uchiha-san? Because of my...my _body_?" she asked almost inaudibly. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw her start fiddling with her robe, trying to close it properly at last.

"Hn," he eventually confirmed, _decidedly _not looking at her. This caused Hinata to gasp, then swallow with an audible gulping sound.

"T-thank you," she whispered. He didn't know what to say to that and kept awkwardly silent. Almost a minute passed that way, Hinata fidgeting and Sasuke trying to remember a jutsu to make himself invisible as well as erasing the last five minutes of his life from all of reality and everyone's memory.

"I-I am not giving up on our training sessions, Uchiha-san," she finally said, unusually firmly. "But now things will be...things will be strange between us, unless I fix this somehow." Sasuke still couldn't look her in the eye. He was now attempting to avoid obviously and uselessly covering his crotch by holding his _other _head in his hands, slumping over to hide his face and also his most relentless erection ever.

"Training. Yes. That is fine, Hyūga. Just...can't you just go now?" he mumbled into his hands.

"B-because we will be working closely t-t-together for a long while, I think...I think you should c-call me Hinata, Uchiha-san," she said timidly.

"Fine. _Hinata_, will you just lea-" Sasuke started to say, then he heard the terrifying sound of something rustling to the floor.

He dropped his hands from his face in shock, just in time to see Hinata pull her hospital gown off her back and shoulders and drop it to the ground to join her already discarded robe and a tiny, horrible scrap of white underwear. He distantly noted how this sort of thing was becoming alarmingly more common over the last day or so.

"Huh," Sasuke suddenly thought in a moment of perfect realization and clarity, "She really _wasn't _wearing a bra."

* * *

There was grass under his feet and a soft breeze blowing through his hair. The horrible sewer was gone and he couldn't see Naruto or the Kyūbi anywhere. Looking around, he saw he was was standing in a clearing, surrounded by a dark, deep forest. A small, twinkling stream ran through a corner of it to one side. Sunlight shown down brightly on a small wooden farmhouse in the center of the clearing. Sasuke felt strangely drawn to it – a subtle invitation, pulling on his very chakra. Though he could clearly resist, he decided he had nothing better to do, so he followed it.

Carefully checking his surroundings with his eyes, he saw that once again everything was made entirely of chakra, the illusion of the environment subtly glowing in his Sharingan's sight. But this time, it was allthe red chakra that seemed linked to the Kyūbi. Well, it was similar, but what he was seeing now was...subtly different. Darker, calmer. Outside the cage, the red chakra had raged and roiled, slamming against the bars of the cage and slowly leaking past the bars inside those odd pipes. Here, it seemed to have quietly pooled, as if from a rainstorm that had passed. But it also looked immovable, frozen in place long before he'd arrived.

His feet had carried him to the entrance of the house almost by themselves. Still not sensing any threats (and not knowing if anything in this odd chakra-scape could even hurt him in the first place) he decided to simply continue forward. The door pushed open with a creak.

"You might as well come in," said a soft, gravelly voice. Inside was a mostly empty single room, containing a simple wooden table, a chair, and a bed. There was also a rocking chair in one shadowy corner and someone sitting in it.

Sasuke took another step forward, trying to see the person in the chair more clearly. Then his eyes finally started adjusting to the dim light of the room and he gasped in surprise. The door quietly closed behind him with a soft thump.

"Not what you were expecting?" rasped out the figure in the darkened corner. The entire room was suddenly filled with a deep, cold laughter that vibrated every bone in Sasuke's body.

"This...this isn't real," Sasuke half-stated, half-asked, wondering why the shadowy form filled him with such dread.

"Correct," said the gravely voice. "But that doesn't mean I can't be trapped here. And it didn't stop that first shit-licking Uchiha bastard from having his fun."

The figure stepped out of the shadows. Instead of the old man it had sounded like, it was a young woman with ghostly pale skin and fiery red hair, cropped painfully short. She was dressed in a simple gray frock, like a prisoner might wear, and she had a plain gray bandana covering most of her head, only letting a small amount of her short, scruffy looking hair show. Her face was dirty and lined, making her look older than her body suggested.

Taking another hesitant step forward, she pulled on the neck of her dress sharply, snapping whatever laces held it on in the back in one violent tug. She then yanked it roughly down her body and dropped the ruined dress to the floor, stepping out of it then standing there dispiritedly, her naked body tense and defeated.

This might have been erotic if it wasn't for her jutting ribs, slumped, hopeless demeanor, and obvious fear and disgust of him. She was rail thin, but had small, high, well-formed breasts. A fine-boned, heart-shaped face held eyes that darted around the room. But they were dull, not playful and dancing like he felt they should have been, and their dark red color was dim and faded looking. He refused to look any closer. Her angry subservience both embarrassed and confused him. He turned and stared out the window, keeping track of her out of the corner of his eye.

"Get this over with and leave me to my suffering, Uchiha bastard," she snarled at him.

"W-what?" he stammered out, looking at her sideways.

"You can't rip me from this cage, Uchiha, so I can't be forced to help you in your pathetic little revenge," she said. "The Hokage- I'm sorry, the **former** Hokage, made sure of that. The ass."

"Secretly marrying Minato was a huge mistake," she muttered, almost to herself, as she stared at the ground. "Oh, and then getting pregnant? Stupid stupid stupid." Looking up she continued ranting at him.

"Those weren't the only mistakes he made. The relationship between your clan's suffering and his actions, his _secrets_, would tear you and this village apart, Uchiha. Secrets I know because I slept in his bed every night." Running a hand over the bandana covering her her close-cropped hair, she smirked darkly.

"He loved long red hair, did you know that? Oh, we were so close, so very _intimate_. He is the reason I am trapped here now. His stupid plan to save an ungrateful village full of pathetic idiots. Idiots who continue to hurt Naruto to this day. Even after living in Konoha as long as I did, I was still surprised by how much hate they could have for a beautiful little boy." Dropping her arm to swing listlessly at her side, she shook her head.

"But I couldn't do anything, trapped here. If you could only know what it cost me, how much it _hurt_ when he activated his sealing technique, how much I _hate_ him for forcing me to be sealed into Naruto...oh, I would have resisted if I could. I never wanted to hurt Naruto, you know. But that doesn't matter. You wouldn't believe the relationship between Naruto and myself even if I explained. And I'm sure you're here for something else, anyway. But anything you want to do to me, you'll have to do inside this cage, you sick fuck. This...illusion is all of me you'll ever be able to touch."

"Who the hell are you?" he croaked out weakly. Clearing his throat, he tried again, still only glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "What is this place? What is this about another Uchiha?" He paused, grimacing. "Why are you _naked_?"

"Do you intend to taunt me with sick games before you mind rape me, Uchiha? Perhaps lead me to believe you want to help me, first? Maybe weave illusions of a chance at escape before you so unexpectedly betray me? _He_ spent a relative-time _month_ breaking me, but not even _he _was that twisted," she spat, glaring angrily at him.

"Mind...mind...what?" he asked in horror, turning to face her again. She swept him with her eyes, frowning and searching for something.

"You've got the eyes and you know you can command me, like he could," she said, her voice hoarse and broken. "Just my luck that an Uchiha would find me right after I regained enough yin chakra to form a mental avatar again."

Sasuke was tired of this. If he could command her, then he would, even if she did look like a pathetic war refugee. Looking her straight in the eye, he again demanded, "Where am I? Why are you here?"

His eyes burned, power twisting though them. Her entire body twitched several times as she appeared to be fighting against invisible forces, but she didn't, or couldn't, break his gaze. A few seconds later, panting and defeated, she ground out her answers between clenched teeth.

* * *

Seeing Hinata standing there, naked except for some bandages, Sasuke did what any trapped animal would do – he froze and hoped the danger would go away if he just didn't get noticed. He couldn't blink, he couldn't look away, and he found himself unable to breathe.

This was far worse than the last girl to suddenly disrobe in front of him. She had been pathetic and hurting, her suffering and fear clear to see and her weak, slightly emaciated looking body not at all appealing to him. Hinata was embarrassed and seemed to want to sink through the floor but she was clearly offering this of her own free will. She almost seemed _proud_ of her decision to stand naked in front of him. And she was _clearly_ a very healthy young woman.

"Uchiha-san," she said quietly, looking nervously at the ground but no longer stuttering, "you know this is how I see the world all the time with my Byakugan. We...my clan, are instructed not to tell people just how powerful the Byakugan is and what all the...effects are. They feel it would make others...uncomfortable.

"But you have trusted me with your secret training, so I have trusted you with information on my clan's bloodline. And I also trust you with...with this, which is as close as I can give you to how the rest of my clan sees me. How you would be able to see me if you had the Byakugan yourself. It is only fair, after I have invaded your privacy in such a despicable and shameful way."

Hinata was fully naked in front of him, blushing brightly but not attempting to cover herself at all. She was poking her index fingers together nervously but otherwise stood completely still as he took a long look at her. He could see...everything. He almost wished he still had his-

"Please, Uchiha-san," she whispered, interrupting (and possibly reading) his thoughts, "activate your own eyes and...and take a look at me. I am not ashamed for you to see me with those eyes and I know you will remember better that way. If I can always see you like, like _this __– _it is only fair that you have an exact memory of...of me at all times yourself."

"Hn," he grunted in vague thanks, too surprised by her permission to be more articulate. Then he of course activated his Sharingan. And it was glorious.

The human eye isn't a perfect information capture device, but the Sharingan helps it come close. Still, when details matter, one has to work with the structures the eye naturally has, and things at the eye's focal point are simply physically seen more clearly even with the Sharingan. So Sasuke naturally took his time running his eyes over Hinata to ensure maximum data retrieval. The longest minute of his life later, he asked a completely off the wall question simply because most of his brain was otherwise occupied with more important things.

"Why do you do that with your fingers?" he asked, not realizing yet he'd said it out loud.

"Wh-what?" she replied, freezing in confusion with her fingertips still pressed together. Now knowing he'd actually spoken that random thought, he dragged his attention and watering eyeballs (as he hadn't yet blinked) upward to look her in the eyes.

"Uhh...right. That thing where you push your fingers together?" he said, mimicking the action himself. "I notice you're always doing it, especially when you're nervous." Seemingly forgetting that standing there naked should have been the most mortifying thing possible, Hinata somehow blushed even brighter.

"Ano...it is very embarrassing," she said, shuffling her feet and clasping her hands together in front of her, most likely to stop herself from doing the finger poking thing again.

"Th-there is a chakra exercise they teach young Hyūga kids, almost as soon as they can walk. Doing it is comforting to me, but...my clan would consider it childish to still be doing it. Like playing with an infant's toy. Or sucking your thumb. It is not proper."

"A-anyway," she stuttered out before once again regaining her composure. "It is used to help children learn to control the flow of chakra to their hands, one of the hardest parts of mastering the Jūken style."

Now lecturing on a topic she knew and loved, Hinata seemed to have entirely forgotten she was naked in front of him. She had stopped fidgeting in place, growing more relaxed now that she had something else to think about. Apparently her clan really didn't have much of a body taboo. Logical, he thought, given their bloodline power. Or perhaps it simply didn't matter to her anymore. She casually bent over, almost causing Sasuke to faint in the process, and picked up her pile of clothes, then walked over to what was now her usual chair beside his bed.

"By pushing chakra out of the tip of one finger and into the tip of the other, one can feel the level of release and the consistency of flow. Because minor damage to the finger Points is easily healed and non-fatal, this allows one to safely learn the control required to use the strikes of the Jūken as early as four or five years old." Hinata placed her clothes on the chair, then sat on them.

"Here, let me show you," she said, leaning forward with one hand extended.

The proximity of a naked girl to him now ruining any higher brain functions, he automatically reached out a hand to her, imitating the single extended finger. Pressing the tip of her finger to his, she paused, scrunching her face in concentration.

"Hold...on...one second. I have never done this with someone else, and I just want to make sure...I use a small enough amount of chakra to..."

Sasuke suddenly felt a warmth in his finger, slowly spreading and dissipating down towards his hand. It was a warm spike inside his finger, growing increasingly hot as she continued to channel chakra, but not yet truly uncomfortable. Though he couldn't see the deeper systems with the Sharingan like she could with her Byakugan, he could still see the glowing chakra moving steadily out to the tip of her finger and then into his own chakra system. Like the Jūken strikes he'd received in their real-world training, the sense of someone else's chakra entering his body was...odd. Most of all, it felt like Hinata. Which made sense, but didn't really explain the sensation fully.

"Now you try," she said softly, withdrawing her chakra in a rush that left him tingling and feeling almost cold in comparison. Now having done the impossible and almost entirely forgotten she was naked himself, he was able to focus on his inner chakra, adjusting the flow to his hand as if he was preparing to do the signs for a very low-power technique. Unmolded, the chakra should be in its neutral state for his body and relatively harmless. He slowly pushed out a trickle, trying to see clearly enough to maintain a steady flow like she had. He didn't think he was doing it quite right yet, but at this power level it shouldn't be damaging anyway.

"Oh!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed. "Good, I felt that. Keep the flow regular, as if my body was part of your chakra network. Do not simply bunch it up and let what you have go in one burst."

Spending a few minutes practicing, he eventually learned the child's exercise to the point where Hinata was having them switch back and forth. It only made sense he could do it so easily. He was an Uchiha, after all, and this simple exercise wasn't really part of the clan bloodline but merely a technique to train releasing chakra. The Jūken taijutsu style took advantage of the ability to see chakra Points, but could theoretically be learned by anyone, even if it would have been useless without the Byakugan.

"That's nice, Uchiha-san," Hinata said, having gotten very into the simple training. It seemed to have relaxed her a great deal.

"It feels like I am running my finger over a wool cap on a dry day," she added. "A static electrical charge seems to be constantly moving through it."

"Look!" she said, patting her head with her other hand. "My hair is starting to standing on end." It was, he saw, giving her a slightly mussed look that was all the more shocking when he noticed she was, in fact, still naked. She had a small smile that slowly faded into a nervous blush when she saw him looking at her again, his Sharingan still slowly spinning.

"I was told...in that special girls-only class at the Academy...they said that a kunoichi's body is one of their greatest weapons. But I never thought..." she said, trailing off at the end.

"I do not mind you seeing me," she quickly added, "as I am used to being with family members, all with the Byakugan, but I never thought that...umm." She fidgeted some more, poking at his finger with hers and making his hand tingle warmly. He pushed back automatically and made her shiver a little in response as she felt his chakra.

"Do...do you really like looking at me so much, Uchiha-san?" she asked in a small voice, her finger still pushed into his but their game forgotten. Sasuke blinked slowly, trying to figure out how to answer.

"Yes," he said simply.

"W-why?" she replied, a frown on her face. "I-I know I am not pretty. I work out and eat too much to be truly thin. My arms and legs have too much muscle and aren't refined looking. I don't have a slender waist-"

"Because you are training to be a strong ninja," he interrupted. She looked at him oddly and he stared back coldly. "I appreciate strength," he added. She shook her head as if she didn't believe him.

"My...my hips aren't slender and dainty and my...my _butt_," she whispered the word, "is too big," she suggested, disbelief growing on her face.

"Only males are meant to look slender there," he said. Grinding his teeth briefly he added, "Despite some...rumors one of my teammates might have been spreading, I..._prefer _looking at beautiful, curvy females." Her face scrunching up in confusion, she mouthed the word 'beautiful' before shaking her head and continuing to list her attributes as she saw them. Sasuke was beginning to wonder if the girl owned a mirror, and if so, if she ever used it.

"My...breasts are embarrassingly big," she added hesitantly.

"Only an idiot would criticize them," he instantly responded, managing not to reflexively look down at them only because he was gradually becoming used to her terrifyingly naked body. Half an hour ago, he would have laughed in the face of anyone who suggested he'd"get used" to looking at a beautiful naked girl. Even if it was someone he knew well, like Hinata. No, _especially_ if it was Hinata's body.

"They are spectacularly distracting," he stated simply, finally briefly glancing down at them. "Very effective, if you learn to use them to your advantage. Most kunoichi would kill, uhh, kill _for free_, to have such a well shaped body."

"You do not have to say these things, Uchiha-san," she whispered softly. "It will not hurt my feelings if you speak the truth. I know I am not-"

"You are stunningly beautiful, Hinata," he said sharply, finally pulling his hand away and sitting back on the bed. He had pulled his knees up and his crotch was still carefully covered by a sheet, but he honestly didn't know why he bothered anymore. She'd already seen him and it wasn't going away in any case. She sat there with her hand still held out loosely in surprise, looking at him with yet another blush growing on her face.

"Those outfits you have been wearing, especially the Uchiha clan kunoichi one, are amazingly effective in distracting an opponent. You should acknowledge and use this strength of yours, not attempt to deny it. A strong ninja uses all the weapons at their disposal."

Hinata sat back in her chair, knees together with her hands on top of them, apparently lost in thought. She finally nodded her head and spoke up, looking him in the eye, "Thank you Uchiha-san. I...I never realized- I will look into what I can do to use this natural ability to my advantage."

She was blushing all the way down to her neck but now had a small smile on her lips. "That is, if you will help me test it in training," she added softly.

"Hn," he agreed, surprised at her sudden boldness but certainly not willing to argue.

Starting to push herself to her feet, she suddenly seemed to think of something, then sat down again at the edge of the chair. Pushing her fingers together again in thought, she suddenly blushed all the way down to the tops of her breasts.

"Uchiha-san," she started.

"This formality is stupid, Hinata," he said with a strained sigh. "Even my idiot teammates call me Sasuke."

"Y-yes Sasuke-san," she replied, obviously thrown off whatever thought she'd had. "Yes, well. You know that a kunoichi's...her body is one of her weapons. And you also know what the rules are concerning someone else's weapons..." she trailed off, but he clearly understood her point.

One didn't touch another ninja's weapons without permission, even in jest. Doing so would usually at least result in attempted bodily harm to the offender, but the Hokage wouldn't do more than slap you on the wrist even if you killed someone who tried to touch the weapons you were wearing. A ninja's weapons were that important to keeping them alive. You didn't mess around with that. You really, _really_ didn't want to touch a kunoichi without her permission. Not only would she likely try to kill you reflexively, her fellow ninja in the area would help.

"I believe I understand, Hinata," he said.

"G-good. Then...it occurred to me how...how you still might need to ease your...your _situation_," she stuttered out, not looking at him. Sasuke froze, not for the first time wishing this entire conversation was over. He didn't say anything.

"I know about...I-I mean, girls do _that _too. To...to relax and relieve stress. At the Academy, we learned everyone does..._it _and that was okay, so I assume you know how...I mean, as a boy..." she said, not daring to actually make that a question. A question he would rather die than answer.

Sasuke's newly gained mental strength was entirely set against imagining, in graphic detail, how the naked girl in front of him masturbated. Which she had as much as claimed to do. It was all he could manage to continue breathing. Though his Sharingan was still slowly spinning in his eyes, he was looking stubbornly at the other side of the room.

"I can make it though this," he thought to himself. He was strong. He was Uchiha. This was good training for when some adult kunoichi tried to seduce and kill him, something he would not allow himself to fall for. That Hinata was able to have this great an effect on him without even apparently trying was...worrying. But he must be strong.

"A-ano...then I thought...I thought how girls are, and how that is hidden more than...than boys are, so this still wasn't really f-fair to you, Sasuke-san." He couldn't look at her. He couldn't think about what she was trying to say. Maybe if he yelled for help, someone would rescue him from this terrible threat: a naked girl talking frankly about sexuality. But no, there might be nothing any man in the village could do against this powerful a force. He'd simply have to survive to warn others of the danger. Swallowing nervously, he continued to not think with all his might.

"A-and it is you, Sasuke-san, so I d-don't feel ashamed if it is j-just this once. Please d-do not misunderstand. A-and it will h-help you take care of...at least, if it was me, I would...no, no, that is too embarrassing to say!" She shook her head quickly.

"I just...p-please, look and then I will leave you. You can then d-do what you...need to do, and you won't have to be embarrassed anymore by, by what I saw. It is only fair." Sasuke's eyes moved on their own. He was now beyond fear and had entered a sort of distant, meditative state. His eyes slowly spun.

She was sitting at the edge of the chair now, her knees spreading apart. There was a patch of midnight hair there, so dark it was almost blue, and he was having trouble breathing. The low, late-afternoon sun shone through the window directly onto her incredible body. She reached down with two fingers and showed herself to him. His mind overloaded and everything went white.

* * *

Closing the door behind herself, clothes properly in place again, Hinata tried to control her seemingly endless blush and shaking hands. What had she been thinking? Sasuke-san had been hurt and confused, but had she really helped things at all? She had not dared to speak or even look at him, and had simply put on her clothes and left. He had been very still and silent and hadn't said a word to her. She was worried about what he must think of her now.

Leaning against the wall outside his room, she tried to catch her breath and still her rapidly beating heart. Then she realized what Sasuke-san was likely doing just beyond that same wall, and she stood up suddenly, as if the well had been on fire. Stumbling down the hospital corridors, she tried to find a place to hide and recover her balance, mentally and physically.

Finally finding an empty waiting room, she hid in the corner, claiming a chair behind a pillar that wasn't immediately visible from the open entrance way. She needed to find herself again before going to see Suzume-san. She was very worried about her. Practicing the meditation techniques that Sensei had told her to use to calm her mind, she was eventually able to find some peace.

"Sasuke-san wants to continue training with me," she thought calmly. "That, that is good. He...seems to believe what he said about me. He wouldn't lie to save my feelings. He isn't like that. I embarrassed him terribly, but he still said nice things. He can still stand to be around me."

Taking several deep breaths and worrying her hands together, she remembered the endless moments where they had shared their chakra – such a silly, childish thing to do, but it felt so nice. Her father would be disappointed if he found out. Of course, her father would be even more disappointed in her state of dress when she had been doing it. But really, what difference did it make for a Hyūga? Everyone in her clan had surely already seen her naked by now, and she them. Even her father had, every time they trained. There was nothing wrong or shameful, or...or _sexy_ about that.

And she had felt so close and comfortable playing that simple game with Sasuke-san. It was like when she used to play with her sister, Hanabi. Her sister, who now seemed so cold to her as she trained with her father. Her sister, who was now the Hyūga heir instead of weak little Hinata. She realized she hadn't even said goodbye to Hanabi when she left so suddenly, over a month ago. She needed to get back to the clan compound, maybe have a conversion with-

"Haruno-san, what I mean to say is that the Hyūga owe you a debt," her father's voice said, coming for just beyond the waiting area she was hiding in. She could now hear two people walking toward the waiting room she was currently hiding in. They stopped right outside the room, continuing to talk. Hinata froze, unsure what was going on.

"You went beyond what was required by duty in protecting my daughter Hinata," Hiashi-sama continued, cold and calm as always. "Let me speak plainly: if there was a favor you would ask, it would allow a swift repayment of this debt between us."

"I-I was just doing my job- I mean, thank you Hyūga-sama," Sakura mumbled. There was a silence, and Hinata could clearly see her father in her mind's eye glaring blankly at the pink-haired young kunoichi, who was doubtless cowering in front of him. Everyone cowered in front of her father.

"There is...one thing I would ask of you," she finally squeaked out. Her father was, of course, silent. She didn't doubt that he was still expressionless. "I heard, err, that you were the guardian for Sasuke Uchiha-sama and his clan and...and that you were able to arrange marriages...with him." Sakura was almost whispering now, and Hinata had to use the trick Kiba-san had showed her to add a little chakra to her ears to boost her hearing. She didn't know what the other girl was getting at- no wait, could it be? Was she going to ask her father to stop the arranged marriages? Hinata was now very glad to have trusted Naruto's teammate with such private information. She was a good person and a true friend.

"I-I would ask you, Hyūga-sama," Sakura slowly stammered out, "t-to allow my family to arrange a m-marriage between Uchiha-sama and myself." Her father was silent for the longest time.

Hinata's mind was iced over, unable to understand the treachery that had just occurred. Sakura was supposed to be helping stop the awful arranged marriages to Sasuke-san, to save the other girls who would get pulled into this horrible situation, not making herself a part of it! Sakura was going to be Hinata's friend. This was...this was a base betrayal! Sasuke-san was mean, but he wouldn't stab her in the back like that. Maybe in the front, to complete his goals or just show his strength, but never in the back. That was for weaklings. And certainly not so clumsily. Did Sakura think she wouldn't find out, sooner rather than later?

"This is possible, Haruno-san," her father finally said. "It will take some time to confer with the Hyūga clan elders. But I believe that it will be possible to fulfill this request. We will contact your father with the details soon." Her father walked off first, with Sakura following soon after.

Hinata's hands were now softly glowing with chakra and the padded arms of her chair were faintly smoking where she was gripping them with whitened knuckles. Her feelings were not important. What was important was what this would do to Sasuke-san. He couldn't have known his pink-haired teammate was going to try this. It would hurt him when he found out, as this was as much a betrayal of him as it was of her. It would hurt him, and it was all Sakura's fault. She was _cruel_, and, and _selfish_, and a _liar_. And she would _pay_.


	24. Chapter 24

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Author's Note:** Looks like I've got to split this one into two chapters, as it was going to be as large as two average chapters and was taking forever to proof and edit. Maybe I'll update with the second (Chapter #25) Wednesday this week. If not, then Sunday (2013/07/28). Sorry about the wait, hope everyone enjoys.

My Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

Sasuke woke from his...daze? Yes, that sounded about right. He certainly hadn't fainted, but he had been _very _shocked. The last thing he clearly remembered was...amazing. What had possessed Hinata to do _that_? He still felt a little dizzy just remembering. She had taken off all her clothes, just to be...fair? Then she'd...she'd showed him her...

Sasuke sighed long and loud, rubbing a hand against his itching eyes, which were still sore from having used his Sharingan for so long in his current weakened state.

Hinata had said that all was to keep things from being "awkward" between them. Were all the Hyūga insane? With his Sharingan on, he had a perfect, permanent memory of...and also the rest of her very, very, _entirely _naked body. How could he think of anything else now? How was he going to focus on his training with all of _that_ sitting there in the back of his mind? As if his memories weren't screwed up enough as it was.

Adding to that, he recalled again his little adventure with Naruto's chakra prison. He sighed and reached down to carefully adjust his thin, loose (but not loose enough) hospital pants. If this was going to be a continuing trend, maybe the rumors in the clan notes about blindness caused by overuse of the Mangekyō Sharingan would be a blessing in disguise. At least then he'd avoid the mental damage from a constant bombardment of naked fangirls that, given his luck, fate was undoubtedly already throwing his way. He hadn't even escaped them while inside the most complicated seal he'd ever seen, created by the Fourth Hokage himself.

* * *

Slipped into an illusory pocket dimension somewhere inside Naruto's stupid, stupid chakra system, the last loyal member of the Uchiha clan asked a question backed by the unstoppable power of his eyes, projected through his will into this strange inner space.

"Where am I? Why are you here?" he demanded.

The naked young redheaded woman in front of him crumbled before the power of his Sharingan. As he suspected, by somehow being inside the Kyūbi she was vulnerable to the same mystical power of the Sharingan as the Bijū itself. His eyes commanded her to answer.

"Your mental probe is...within a chakra construct that collects and guards yin chakra," the strange woman rasped out, still struggling weakly against the demands of his eyes. He felt his strength being rapidly pulled out of his chakra system, powering his Sharingan to force her to answer. He was near his limits already and he couldn't keep this up for long. Looking at her shaking under his gaze, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"It...it was designed to replace the chakra I lost when I was sealed into this...stinking sewer that is currently my prison," she continued, he voice low and rough. "You are speaking to an avatar, an internal image of my spirit" She shuttered again, her thin body quivering violently. Sasuke felt vaguely ill.

While it was getting him the answers he needed, he didn't like how this power affected the strange woman. It seemed using the Sharingan worked the same way on her as when he'd intentionally subdued the Kyūbi in that other place. But doing the same here to a naked woman felt..._wrong_. Being a ninja, he knew he shouldn't be so squeamish, but he didn't see any reason right now to do morally questionable things to naked, unarmed female...avatars, in odd chakra illusions. He didn't know why but he was fairly sure she wasn't lying. Or maybe it was that some part of him _knew _she couldn't lie, not when he used his powers on her like this. Briefly closing his eyes, he turned off his Mangekyō Sharingan.

"What is your name?" he asked carefully, trying hard _not _to activate the Mangekyō again. He needed to save his strength and it would also be interesting to see if she would cooperate without him ripping the answer from her.

Glaring at him with hate and what might be a little confusion, she replied, "Odd, _he_ never asked my name. I cannot remember the last time someone knew it. Maybe not since-" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter." Eying him with infinite distaste for almost a minute she quietly considered.

"Fine," she spat out, pulling off the bandana covering her head. Her hair was cut almost against her skull, making clearly visible the pair of tall red fox ears that now unfolded limply, high on the sides of her head.

Then there was movement low and behind her, surprising him into looking down – something he'd been trying to avoid doing because of her unclothed state. Ignoring her hairless crotch with iron will (made easier by her visible ribs and almost emaciated hips), he saw yet another anomaly. Flicking out from behind one naked, rail-thin thigh was a long, bushy red tail, nervously moving side to side. She must have been holding it high against her back before.

The woman was looking listlessly to one side now, not meeting his gaze. Her ears slowly slumped, laying back on her head again, and her dirty, slightly matted looking tail twitched, then tucked itself all the way between her legs, where it shook like a dog expecting a beating. Sasuke quickly looked away again, embarrassed and ashamed by what he saw.

"Insect," she growled, voice quavering but filled with false bravado, "know that my name is...**Kurama**– _your kind _know me as the Kyūbi. Speak my true name and you will suffer. Now go ahead, do your worst – I will one day have my revenge, and all you mind-raping Uchiha bastards will die choking on your own foul blood."

* * *

Closing the door quietly behind her, Hinata walked softly into Suzume-san's hospital room. Her eyes had been active even before entering, so she knew her older friend was awake. She had seen her many bruises, healing cuts, and even several broken bones that had yet to be repaired. Schooling her face blank as she quietly closed the hospital door behind her, Hinata turned to face the room's only bed, ready to deal with her friend's scorn for Hinata's horrible weakness.

She could barely avoid wincing as she recalled the rumors she'd heard about both her friend's medical situation and her plans regarding her ninja career, which was already endangered because of the extensiveness of Suzume-san's internal injuries, a good enough reason by itself for the ex-Special Jōnin to quit. Fighting against waves of self-loathing, Hinata somehow remained calm instead of turning and running. She knew she had to bravely face what her failure had brought.

"Mistress!" the young woman exclaimed on seeing her, "Ah, I mean, ah, Hyūga-sama." She noticed her friend had changed her method of address and stumbled verbally for the first time since Hinata had met her, interrupting the apology that was on the tip of her tongue and freezing her in surprise.

Suzume-san then continued in a firmer, more formal and tightly controlled voice, "To my shame, I have failed to protect the main house. I am not worthy to continue serving and will be removing myself from your retinue to return to the branch house in shame. Please forgive my disgraceful failure as a branch member to protect your noble self." Suzume-san then bowed as low as possible, bent painfully double on her bed as she was still too injured to do more than sit up. Her bandage-wrapped forehead scraped the sheets as she silently waited for a response.

This was nothing like what she had expected. Instead of blaming Hinata and quitting because Suzume-san was disgusted with her failures, Suzume-san was blaming herself. She thought _she _wasn't good enough, so she was quitting. The sudden emotional whiplash made Hinata's heart feel like it was going to implode. Mustering her courage, she moved across the room to sit on the side of the hospital bed. She reached over and took both of Suzume-san's hands from where they were folded in front of her as she bowed in contrition.

Raising her confused and unhappy friend from the deep bow, Hinata gently settled her against the raised backrest of the hospital bed. Inching forward to sit right against the side of the young woman's leg, Hinata took her friend's bandaged and bruised hands – still clearly tender from breaks recently mended – and placed them down in the older ninja's lap, covering them with her own small bandaged hands. Hinata's emotional poise, though greatly improved over the last month, was still about to slip, so she avoided directly facing Suzume-san. This allowed Hinata to pretended she couldn't still see all too clearly the pain on Suzume-san's face and the tension in her body.

"M-Mistress, I f-failed you, you shouldn't-"

Face still blank and gaze turned, but sill obviously able to see everything, Hinata placed her bandaged right hand high on Suzume-san's chest, just above and between her modest (for a Hyūga) breasts, fingers and thumb together and palm flat. The same placement, they both knew, as for the most devastating move in the Jūken – a strike directly to a disabled opponent's heart with as much chakra power as possible.

It was never used in demonstration tournaments or sparing, for obvious reasons, but was still part of the most deadly of the ancient katas. Her cousin Neji had used a similar strike on her during the Chūnin Exam, but at greatly reduced power – something he could do safely because of his incredible skill in Jūken. He really did care for her in his own way, she knew, and he didn't truly want her to die – a thought that still made her feel warm inside.

As kinetic energy was irreverent to a Jūken strike's power, the motions only reinforced the strike mentally, so long as it connected. A single concentrated pulse of chakra would be all it would take to kill instantly from someone as powerful as a trained main house member like Hinata.

There would be some excuse invented but Hinata would undoubtedly get away with it; that is, if murdering Suzume-san in her hospital bed were her intention, which it was most decidedly not. Hinata hated employing such trickery, but she needed her friend's undivided attention. And Hinata was a ninja, after all. It was high time to start practicing some minor deceptions in the most helpful possible way.

The older Hyūga woman froze at her touch, eyes large as dinner plates.

"Suzume-san," Hinata said quietly, "why do you fight?"

"I...I am sorry, Mistress. I do not-"

"Why are you still a ninja?" the outwardly calm girl interrupted quietly, her hand unmoving. "There are easier tasks for a Hyūga. You could have retired from active duty at any time and lived a safe life, perhaps providing training for branch member children or performing simple tasks around the clan compound. Or you could have found an approved husband and never have had to hold a blade again. Instead, you choose to continue working as my bodyguard. Why?" Hinata's eyes were still active and she still faced the wall instead of the women in the bed.

"I...wished to serve, Mistress," Suzume-san said after a few moments. "After completing my required Leaf service term and being recalled to the clan, I did not wish to retire to tend a garden or to merely be someone's wife." Hinata still didn't move and was as silent as a statue.

After about a minute, Suzume-san sighed a little and added, "There is something inside that drives me, pushes to be the best at what I am. And I am a ninja, Mistress. I want to feel necessary, not simply be a faceless, powerless civilian, but someone who makes a difference in our clan and in the village. I trained hard and worked hard so I could meet that goal."

Shifting on her bed to more fully face Hinata, she added, "And then I was given the great honor to serve you. And I was never happier. You are the beautiful flower of our clan, Mistress, a shining star guiding us even if you do not know it. You, a main house member, continue to treat the branch members with respect and humility, even after the harsh treatment from your cousin and the scorn of the main house elders. You treat us like family and have never once used the Cursed Seal, even when provoked, even when it would have been fully justified to stop your cousin's verbal abuse.

"The clan elders disagree with you so strongly that you have had to flee your home simply to keep yourself and your sister safe. Those in the main house opposed to your ideals look upon the example that you deliver simply by being yourself and are ashamed of their own actions, which is a great part of why they fear you. Throughout everything, you have done nothing but show true compassion for your family and our situation in the branch house. There are many of us who would do anything for you because of that." Hinata blinked in surprise but nodded fractionally, indicating Suzume-san should continue. Licking her dry lips, she did.

"But that is not why I decided to personally serve you, Mistress," Suzume-san said, "though that alone was more than enough for me to willingly give my life to guard yours. After Kurenai-san started training to take the Jōnin exam and no longer had time to keep an eye on you, I was assigned by your father to your Shadow Guard for whenever you were outside the clan compound.

"When your marriage to the Uchiha clan was arranged, I volunteered to join your personal service as your bodyguard. I still did not know you personally, only having seen you from afar, but I had observed how you treated others and how dedicated you were to becoming a ninja.

"When I was finally able to talk with you I truly saw the wonderful young woman behind the branch house rumors. After growing to know you better, I desired nothing more than to see you blossom into the person you are becoming. Someone even greater and more wonderful than you are now, someone who, by her strength and character alone, could save our cursed and divided clan. And you would do this all because we are your family. That is why I would die for you, my precious princess. That is why my failure to protect you shames me so deeply I can barely stand it. That is why I must leave your service in disgrace, so one better than I can take my place."

Hinata sat quietly as more than a minute dragged by, then she turned and looked down at where her hand still lay against Suzume-san's chest. Hinata's eyes were still surrounded by the crinkled marks of the active Byakugan, so this was simply a gesture and an indication of her attention. Suzume-san seemed a little confused at her continued use of the Byakugan but remained silent.

"I will tell you a story, Suzume-san," Hinata said without hesitation or inflection. "One night, a short time after the Hyūga Affair and long before I joined the Konoha Ninja Academy, I was woken in my bed by servants and told my father required my presence. I had not been sleeping well, so I was too groggy to understand what was happening at the time.

"After rushing to dress myself – you know how I dislike being waited on – I followed them to a room deep in our mansion. When I arrived, I saw it was my mother's sickbed I was being led to. My father was there, as were several clan doctors. My mother had at this point been ill for several weeks. I still did not understand what was happening." Suzume-san drew in a sharp breath and her hands twitched under the one of Hinata's that still covered them. Her eyes widened in surprise when Hinata squeezed back softly, comfortingly.

"Father had me sit by him," Hinata continued, "next to where mother lay. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing very shallowly, as if asleep. We waited there, kneeling by her side silently for what must have been over an hour. I of course did not speak without being spoken to first. Then my father suddenly said, 'turn on your Byakugan.' Knowing I could do at least this, despite my failings in Jūken, I did, forming the focusing seals with shaking hands.

"'What do you see?' he asked sharply, I stammered back something about the room and the people, like it was one of the training exercise, until he interrupted, grabbing my hand roughly. He pulled me forward and pressed my hand against my mother's chest, just like this." Hinata nodded at her own hand.

"He said, 'what do you feel.' Not knowing what he meant, I couldn't respond and looked at him in fear, ashamed that I did not know what he was asking, what kind of test this was that I was failing, or why my mother was like this. There was something wrong and I did not know what it was.

"He demanded, 'do you see her heart?' With my Byakugan on, of course I could, and with my attention drawn to what is usually carefully ignored, I noticed its slow beat in my mother's chest. I quickly nodded yes, an impropriety that father ignored that once.

"'Do you feel her heartbeat?' he continued. Stretching out with my senses, letting just a trickle of chakra enter my fingers and palm as I knew he wanted, I found a slow, almost non-existent, complicated thumping as valves opened and closed, pushing blood through my mother's body. But still, something was wrong." Hinata's face was no longer blank but softly relaxed, her eyes wet but her features serene. Suzume-san's hands were shaking slightly and she stared at the young girl with wide eyes.

"I looked closer, felt more carefully then I ever had before. And then I saw. She was barely breathing. Her heartbeat was growing weaker and more irregular. It was slowing and had almost stopped. I gasped out loud and tried to yank my hand back, my Byakugan deactivating in my panic.

"My father grabbed me and ordered me to turn my eyes back on, then he held my hand against my mothers chest again. As minutes passed, my eyes started to burn from holding the Byakugan on. I remember my mother growing paler and her skin above her gown where my tiny fingertips brushed it becoming clammy. I watched and felt as her heart fluttered to a stop and the rise and fall of her chest ceased." Suzume-san's cheeks were wet now but Hinata's face was still calm.

"One of the others, a Hyūga main house member who I later learned was the clan's chief doctor, whispered something into father's ear. I was not paying attention and had not moved. Father finally released my hand without saying a word and the servants had to practically carry me away. I was very young and in shock, but later it was clear what had happened. I had watched my mother's last moments with an intimacy only possible for the Hyūga.

"I learned as I grew older that my mother had fallen ill from some unknown, treatment-resistant fever. After she fell into a coma, she never woke again and simply faded away. Rumors abounded about her being untreatable because she was civilian-born and did not have a well-developed chakra system for the medical experts to work with, removing a number of powerful techniques. Some main house members blamed others for the arranged marriage that resulted in what they called a 'weak and unworthy wife.'

"Other rumors claimed that Cloud had poisoned her in retaliation for their humiliation during the Hyūga Affair, where we tricked them with my uncle's body. There was never any proof of that, but when I overheard some servants talking about it, I blamed myself. Perhaps father blamed himself as well. Perhaps he blamed me.

"Regardless, at the time I was already feeling the pressure to be the perfect Hyūga heir, a standard I knew I was not living up to. Losing my mother and the awful rumors that followed crushed my spirit completely. I realize now that I have lived a hesitant and shallow life since then, fighting to become stronger without being committed to doing what was required to met my goals. But now I believe I have begun to conquer my fears of failure, and I have worked out why father acted as he did that night.

"It was a message, bluntly but honestly delivered to a small child who knew nothing but a life of luxury and the minor rigors of the training hall. A little girl who knew nothing of death. A fact of life for the weak little daughter who would possibly one day have to lead a great clan and order people she called family to their deaths. A pointed indication of what, above everything else, I needed to protect with those sacrifices. The most precious thing of all, the heartbeat of my village, of my clan, of my family. Of myself. Until recently, I thought I was a complete failure, weak and unable to protect anyone, let alone myself. I thought I was useless and my dream of being a strong ninja was hopeless."

Hinata once again squeezed Suzume-san's hands, then said, "While I was being taken away by those same Sound ninja who hurt you so badly, I found myself unexpectedly able to make a choice. My captors had made a mistake and I had some freedom of action, an opportunity to remove any chance of the secrets of the Byakugan falling into enemy hands. I know the options and I considered them all. I felt my own heartbeat and was ready to end it, performing my last duty to the clan." Suzume-san choked back a quiet sob.

"Before now, I had no idea so many people cared about me," she said, eyes downcast. "I...I thought at the time that maybe my death would disappoint my teammates and my sensei. Maybe my sister would remember me fondly. But now I know there are many people who look at me and accept me. I owe it to them to keep fighting, no matter what. I owe you that as well."

"But back then, I was so scared. And the only reason I continued was..." here Hinata blushed and paused, "was my training with Sasuke-san and the example of a, a certain person who never gave up, no matter the odds or how fate seemed to be against him. Sasuke-san has helped me a great deal in the last month, but this other person was important to me long before then. He is my role model, giving me the courage to go on even when I am scared and want to quit. A day long ago when I was ready to give up, ready to quit the Academy and my dream, was the day I met him, and I have been following his example ever since."

"I am so glad you have someone like that in your life, Mistress," Suzume-san said, finally finding her voice. Hinata nodded and smiled a little.

"He was also the first person who ever stood up for me, even though he didn't know who I was. That he might have been as lonely as I was and have had similar troubles in his life was something I have only just begun to realize. I never approached him after that first meeting, thinking I had nothing to offer him. I still thought I was worthless to everyone when I finally graduated the Academy and met my team, but I discovered they needed me as much as I needed them. Even when I felt I was so useless during the Chūnin Exam, they still stuck by my side, never once making me feel I was weak.

"And then my hero once again stood up for me, cheering me on, trying to protect me when I was injured, and actually defeating cousin Neji in the Finals, all while showing him the flaws in his hurtful and self-defeating philosophy." Blushing a little, her thoughts turned to dear Naruto-kun for several long moments, then she cleared her throat quietly and continued.

"Some things have happened to me since then. I have learned some things about him. Now I think I understand better what he has gone through and how lonely he must be, and I intend to finally try to stand up bravely and be his friend. I hope...I hope he will accept me. I want to tell him how much he has meant to me." Suzume-san smiled back knowingly. Hinata blushed even deeper, aware that her friend must know who she was talking about, but still too embarrassed to say it out loud.

"Mistress, I am sure he would love to have you as a friend."

"I hope so," Hinata said earnestly. "I have always been too shy to talk to him, but he seems to get along well with my teammates. Which is good, as I really like my teammates and I like having them as friends. They have helped me so much.

"And now, now I also have you and Sasuke-san to help me grow stronger and realize my dreams of protecting my clan and my family. When I was taken by the Sound ninja, I was so scared. But I remembered that I had to fight on so long as my heart was still beating, I realized that the strength all my friends and heroes have showed so many times is also within me. So I fought and did not give up, and the village and my clan fought for me as well. And now I won't give up on you, and I won't allow you to give up on yourself." Raising one of Suzume-san's hands to her chest with her free hand, Hinata continued, tears dripping down her cheeks as well.

"You tried to keep me safe with all your heart. Thank you so much. The only thing I would hate more than you dying fighting to save me is you giving up on your dreams despite doing your very best. You are my family. I can see and feel your heart beating strong and I know you have always done everything you could. That is what is important to me. Please do not give up."

Taking a deep breath and then doing the unthinkable in a main house member's presence, Suzume-san activated her Byakugan and feed the tiniest drop of chakra into the hand pressed against Hinata's chest, allowing her to see and feel clearly the girl's own heartbeat.

"It will be as you say, Mistress," Suzume-san replied, blinking away her tears while pretending they didn't exist. "I will not give up. Please excuse my brief moment of weakness. I will strive to become stronger so that I can serve you and the clan better in the future." Hinata finally broke into a wide grin and nodded her head at her friend, holding both of her hands and squeezing them tight.

They didn't hug. But for Hyūga, this was already practically jumping up and down in joy. Finally dropping their Byakugan, they sat hand in hand for several minutes, sharing the quiet, happy moment.

"So, much has happened since the last time I have seen Mistress," Suzume-san said, demeanor once again appropriately stoic and Hyūga, but with the slightly teasing phrasing Hinata had grown used to.

"I had heard something about Mistress standing over her fallen fiancé with a flaming sword, bravely saving his life. Also, that Mistress left a security envelope, diving back into danger _after_ having been rescued, resulting in that situation." She stopped, as if to consider. Hinata fidgeted nervously and blushed, realizing how it sounded when put that way.

"But with respect, the question I am most concerned about the answer to is, why are Mistress' panties currently in her front robe pocket?" Hinata's eyes flew open wide and she blushed a deep red, her heart hammering in her chest as she started to try and stammer out a reply.


	25. Chapter 25

**Secret Treasures of the Uchiha  
**by _TimeLoopedPowerGamer_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto isn't mine.

**Summary**: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

**Warnings on content**: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.

**Special Trigger Warning:** In this chapter, there is brief section on what happened to the Kyūbi in the past. It isn't nice, mentioning mind control and mental rape and torture, but that part isn't explicit. Still, sort of unpleasant, so be warned. After consideration, I think I'll go back and add warnings to the previous chapters, where the Kyūbi accuses the Uchiha of similar things, just to be complete. Really earning that "M" rating this chapter, for various reasons.

**Author's Note: **The long awaited _actual_ end to the Find Hinata arc! Secrets revealed! AU world-building story surprises! Hot Uchiha-on-Uchiha action! Wait don't go! I swear it isn't surprise yaoi, though that would be really funny! Also, still not a harem fic.

My Profile page has a link to my fan forum on this site. Chapter update progress reports and story discussion takes place there, as well as any whiny excuses for my updates being late.

**Note on Notes:** I've got a long thing after the end of this chapter. Didn't want to crowd the top with it, but please read for important information.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

Sasuke's mental chakra-scape avatar stood with mouth agape.

"You're...part of the Kyūbi?" he asked, feeling stupid for having to clarify that and temporarily ignoring the previous apparent statement of blood feud against his clan.

Blinking slowly, the fox-featured woman in front of him frowned even deeper, her ears twitching twice. "Yes, that's correct. Am I missing something? You apparently just gained the Mangekyō from that Hyūga girl's faked death." Sasuke's eyebrows shot up at that.

"So if you knew about the eyes and willingly went into the cage, why else would you...if not to..." Her eyes widened and she suddenly slapped her forehead. This was followed by several muffled curses and a short rant in a language Sasuke didn't recognize, all as the strange woman muttered into her hands, shoulders slumped. Sasuke simply continued to stare.

"I thought you had been recruited by the one-eyed Uchiha bastard!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "A stooge, aimed and fired at me, a secret plant in the Jinchūriki's team until your eyes matured and you could try to take control of my mind. I was _sure_ he had gotten to you through your brother, and that was why Itachi didn't...but you obviously just stumbled upon some old family scrolls or something, huh?" Apparently reading his reaction like a book, she continued ranting. "Of course, those idiots wouldn't want to lose the secrets to the Mangekyō, so _naturally _they'd write it down for everyone to read. Stupid, stupid inbred monkeys!"

Growing annoyed that he was apparently not involved in any meaningful way in whatever private freak-out session some obscure part of the Kyūbi was having, Sasuke finally managed to recover his composure.

"Lying to me and blustering is pointless. I didn't come here to mind control you, whatever you are," he said. "I don't know why I'd want to. You look pathetic." The ranting naked woman paused, then looked back at him again. Her eyes seemed more alive and her ears had perked-up when he spoke.

"I am the great Kyūbi, feared in all the Five Great Shinobi Countries and throughout the Seven Kingdoms!" she yelled, pointing at him with one angry index finger while her tail slashed through the air. "With a wave of my paw, cities fall. With the mere echo of my roar, brave men die of fright. My tails destroy mountains and my very breath burns all before me!"

"Hn," Sasuke said dully. The Kyūbi froze, finger still outstretched. One dark red eyebrow twitched.

"Do you have to be naked, or are you finished with that little show?" he asked. Her eyes narrowed but she took a graceful step backward without a word, then picked up her thin frock. He remained silent, watching her closely as she pulled it over her head. Tugging on the hem thoughtfully, she broke the silence.

"This is unexpected," she said, standing in front of him fully clothed once again. "Perhaps a change in approach is called for. You are neither as stupid nor as horny as I expected a boy your age to be, nor is your objective what I assumed.

"Though I am not nearly as weak as I appear, I was not lying about my vulnerabilities, nor was I fabricating the reason I am here." Her tail whipped back and forth behind her, causing the hem of her ragged dress to shift distractingly.

"Hn," he replied simply. "What was all that before?"

"As you saw, I was attempting to elicit sympathy in case your emotions were still soft and tender, your heart not fully hardened against a harmless looking woman's fear and scorn, perhaps causing you to have a change of heart. I did not want you to attempt to violate my mind. All I am here is chakra and mind."

"Then why undress like that?" he asked, confused. "Wouldn't that do the opposite?"

"Using your eyes requires focus. I hoped my pitiful state when naked would be a shock and distraction. What does it matter to me if a _human _sees me like that? I am a far greater being than you could imagine." She shrugged that off with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, I was honest in what has happened to me before. Twice now Uchiha have caught me, raped my mind for what seemed to me like months, and then left me a temporary puppet, dancing to their sick whims.

"They attempted to destroy my sense of self-worth and crush my personality by causing me to experience the most vile acts imaginable, over and over again, in custom illusions built from my worst fears. As a being of chakra, any genjutsu capable of overcoming my natural resistances are quite effective. The experience was entirely real to me, even though I knew logically that it wasn't. It was extremely unpleasant each time and I don't wish it to happen to me again."

"Why would I have...have done something like that?" Sasuke asked, wondering at the change in this odd creature's tone and manners and more then a little sickened by what she was saying. "What would be the point in attacking you like that here?"

"To begin a brainwashing process to gain control of my power – all of my power, not just the fragment you see before you," she said, smoothing out her thin dress and moving to sit on the small bed. "It wouldn't work with me sealed, but you might not have known that or perhaps not have cared. Even the attempt would not have been pleasant for me. Thus my efforts to distract and influence you: your trying that..._process_ without a clear goal and firm resolve would result in failure and drained chakra reserves. A temporary victory for me, requiring you to retreat with a splitting headache while I continued to muster my defenses." She ran her eyes over him slowly.

"But I sense clearly now that you have neither the will nor the..._desire_ to do such a thing. I can detect deception and foul intentions like an odor from liars and rapists as they plot their evil deeds. And so far, you appear to be neither." She sat cross-legged on the thin mattress, tucking her tail around her body and setting it in her lap as her short dress rode up, still technically preserving her modesty. Her hands started working the knots and tangles out of it while she continued, not looking up from her work.

"I'm still confused," Sasuke said, staring at the young woman who claimed to be a Bijū. "Isn't the Kyūbi of legend...male?"

She scoffed, then looked up with her head tilted to the side and a foxy look in her eyes. "Most men think so." Turning back to her tail, she smirked.

"I am far beyond any notions of gender or sex you puny humans have," she said, her eyes now glowing dimly red. "My body is made of pure condensed energy, allowing me to take any form I wish given sufficient motivation. I have made love with great lords and ladies alike, in forms both human and beyond your comprehension. I have caused beautiful males and females of many intelligent types of beings – mystical, ethereal, and Earthly – to worship at my feet and serve my every desire. I am older than your Countries and Kingdoms and more powerful in my Domains than any other single being on this plane of existence. The one I called father invented ninjutsu as you know it today and had powers and wisdom to dwarf any of your so-called Kage. I am a divided part of the whole that formed the greatest entity this world has ever seen or ever will again, and I am the most powerful of those divided."

"You are not some kind of all-powerful kami," Sasuke scoffed.

"I am, of a sort. When I was...let's say when I was _born_, I was shaped as a kitsune. I chose as my Domains **Beautiful ****Hedonism **and **Cruel Revenge**. For your kind, I stoke the fires of purest lust, seeking those with the most perfect beauty and spirit and then driving their pleasures and my own to unimaginable heights. They worship sex and delight with me and I in turn protect them.

"I also hunt down the ingrown, sticking pits containing the worst sentient life has to offer in this world. When I find them, I destroy those foul dens of depravity, those places where intelligent beings turn on their own, those cities ruled by betrayers who transgress against the people who should be their friends and lovers, but are instead their victims.

"In these tasks, I am unstoppable and unmatched. I am immortal and without peer. I am male and female, kitsune and man, zenko and yako. I am eternal and my beauty and power is told of in countless legends in my many forms. Do not attempt to judge or categorize me, _mortal_."

Sasuke blinked, then looked her slowly up and down, raising an eyebrow significantly. She growled low in response.

"Your Fourth Hokage sealed all of my yin chakra within the belly of the Shinigami," she almost snarled, her voice still low and rasping. "That has never happened to me before. It was...troubling. I am only now starting to recover, a dozen years later. My current form is a reflection of my injuries and my attempts to recover. I look female here because that is the most easy form for my stolen yin chakra to take. I look mostly human because it is a human's chakra I stole, and most easily takes that form as an avatar, even when combined in the correct proportions with some of my fully demonic yang chakra.

"As for my imperfections: I cannot look clean because I am still stained with the sins forced upon me. I cannot look beautiful because my mind and spirit is still recovering from being shattered during my last violently fucked up resealing. I cannot look healthy, because _I am not_." Storms of emotions played across her dirty face, then they cleared and she smirked again. Locking eyes with him, she licked her dry, chapped lips and, disturbingly, the tip of her nose with an unusually long, pointed pink tongue.

"Which is a shame. I am neither boasting nor attempting to deceive when I say my physical body was amazing. Now, even in here where it is most easily formed, it is not what it once was. At my full strength, any human, man or woman, would gladly serve me sexually if I simply raised an eyebrow. When I was in human form, that is. At other times, it was mostly running and screaming. My yang chakra can still form a body, but it is only half of my true power and is mentally unstable.

"So now, instead of spending more power than you have in your entire body simply to shrink my towering self down to human female form and keep it there, all I am that is female is what you see before you – a pathetic, broken thing with barely an adult ninja's worth of chakra."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sasuke asked suddenly. Kurama – or, the Kyūbi, or the female avatar, whatever – _she_ shifted on the bed, dropping her mocking smile and becoming more serious, wrapping her tail more tightly against her body.

"I am not stupid, mortal. You could still hurt me. You might even be planning on doing so now. I can do little against you but make those attempts painful in return. So I need your good will, and what better way to garner it than being free with information that you don't have, on things that can't truly be used against me. You can't remove me from the cage and I don't think you are here to try and rip my mind apart, so I figure I'll pull an old trick, one you can't defend against by knowing that I'm doing it. So I'll even tell you.

"The trick is this: I'll simply talk to you, like one mortal to another. I will tell you about myself and how I view the world, my hopes and dreams, and you will gradually feel as if I am a person and not a monster. Thus, you will be less inclined to attempt to uselessly harm me."

Sasuke rubbed his face with his hand, trying to dig through all the manipulations and boasts to something solid. The Kyūbi had been relentless so far in attempting to hit his emotional weak points and she wasn't even trying to hide it now.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was looking a little better – slightly less emaciated and with color returning to her cheeks. Apparently, she was reducing or canceling whatever illusion she had used to appear even weaker before. The Kyūbi's avatar still wasn't impressive to look at, especially compared to a strong, fit kunoichi like Hinata – who was apparently actually _alive_. Sasuke's rapidly developing headache started sending spikes into the backs of his eyes. What was clear was, he still had no time or patience for weak, annoying females of any metaphysical type.

"I am here to stop your host's demonic-chakra-fueled rampage from hurting either me or my teammate himself," Sasuke said simply, folding his arms. "I don't know or care about whatever vendetta you have against the Uchiha. I don't care what happened to you before or how great you think you are or what you are plotting. It doesn't matter anyway, as you'll never get free."

"We'll see about that," she said, a small, secret smile creeping onto her face. "As for your friend..." She stood up from the bed and suddenly the entire room shook once, violently, then was still again.

"Done," she said with a smirk.

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed intelligently, then he frowned. "And that idiot isn't my-"

"Your _teammate _is free of my chakra's influence and is now unconscious and heading toward the ground slowly," the young red-headed woman said. "Time doesn't pass fast inside here, but it does pass. As your business is done and your chakra is almost depleted, I suggest you leave. Unless..." She slowly started running one hand up her thigh, dragging her thin dress dangerously high up her leg as her other hand started tickling her chin with her bushy red tail.

Sasuke took an involuntary step back, then huffed. "Hn. Whatever." Turning around, he stomped to the door and slammed it open.

"Oh, mortal," she called from behind him. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again."

"Hn," he growled negatively over his shoulder.

"If you want to kill your brother Itachi, you'll be back," she said quietly, causing him to stop in his tracks.

"And why would you help me," he said, still not turning around.

"Because you can give me something I want, of course," she quickly answered, "How else would it work?"

"Why wouldn't I just rip the knowledge from your mind, beast?" he said coldly, not turning around.

"You can order me to perform any straight-forward action within my power or answer any simple question, mortal," she said. He could almost _hear _her smirk. "But you cannot order me to train you, lead you on a journey of self-discovery, or help make you a better person. For that, you'll require my freely given assistance."

"I won't free you," Sasuke said bluntly.

"That's not the favor or what I meant," she replied with a laugh. "As if you could. Don't worry. I think you'll..._enjoy_ the process of bargaining with me, _especially _if you accept my offer of power. I have something for my cute young jailer and your fangirl teammate as well. In fact, your entire village could benefit, if you play your cards right and your..._performance_ satisfies me." Taking another step, Sasuke was now standing outside the small shack. The world started to waver around him like a haze on a hot day.

"Why help them?" he asked. "I thought you hated Naruto. And you tried to destroy the village."

"All is not as it seems, mortal," she called back. "My current main embodiment, composed entirely of yang chakra, is more beast than sentient being. That was what was left conscious and active after my last Uchiha tormentor was finished. This small female part of me here is more...whole, and is capable of clear, analytical thought. _I_ can see that Naruto is not an unkind jailer, and he was not the one who threw me in here. There is no reason to punish the pure of heart for what is not their doing. My previous hosts were not cruel either, certainly not compared to how I've heard some others, let's call them _my __brothers, _are treated.

"Also, I did not, in fact, try to destroy your puny little town. It is full of deceitful ninja but has not yet been consumed by hate, and so would not have been my target of my own free will. If I had been in control of myself and meant to destroy it, Konoha would have been leveled without warning or fanfare and I would have disappeared quietly into the night. In any case, I am a pragmatist – I am willing to let the past stay there if I can get what I seek for the future. And a powerful and entirely un-leveled Konoha will best serve my current needs."

"And my clan?"

"Such as it is," she shot back bitingly. Clearing her throat she tried again, more calmly, "I was blustering before. I am not without ego or temper. Though it is not your destruction I seek, I will have my revenge on those who have tormented me." Out of the corner of his eye, half turning his head, he saw her sit in a chair in the middle of the room and fold her hands demurely in her lap.

"There is a man I will require you to kill," she said. "You will agree, in binding mystical contract, to kill him, or there will be no deal. He works from the shadows but, even trapped here, I have detected his foul manipulations. And no, he is not your brother but he is an Uchiha and he is very powerful, even more so than Itachi. Hence my offer of a bargain to increase your power. Do note that if you have the strength to be able to challenge the one-eyed Uchiha, you could defeat your brother with ease." Sasuke frowned and looked over his shoulder at the room, where now only the Kyūbi was still solid and clear, her eyes glowing red in the shadows of the hut where she sat on a fading wooden chair.

"As for you, your cute little pale-eyed Hyūga, and any obsessive ancillary females involved in _restoring_ _your clan_? If you agree to my terms, no harm will come to to you or yours, including your horrible village, for as long as your rutting descendants hold to the pact and your line continues. It is another Uchiha that I truly have a problem with, and I obviously have no issues with you killing your brother. Make a pact with me and I'll leave the rest of you alone to live out your pathetically short little lives in peace, only seeking to destroy those who directly wrong me and mine."

"Why should I trust you," he asked simply.

"Because you will never defeat Itachi as you are," she said softly. "Because if you don't, you and everyone you care about will _die_, along with your hopes and dreams and those of the rest of your pathetic village. Do not misunderstand, this will not even be by my hand. Most likely, I will fight along with Naruto against what is to come regardless of any bargain with the Last Loyal Uchiha. There are many dark forces allied against your village. They move against you even now." She smiled a wide, glowing-eyed, fanged grin as the other world continued to fade out, her eyes sleepily half-closed and locked to his.

"Hurry back, mortal," she said with low, playful snarl. "I have so little to keep me _entertained_ here. And you have so little time left." She tilted her chair back, hooking her feet wide around the wooden legs and slouching a bit.

"Until then, I'll have to keep myself...occupied."

Still maintaining eye contact, she licked her fingers with her unusually long tongue, then slid the hand all the way up her thigh and under her ragged dress. Her other hand ran across the thin material on the front of her dress, up to her small breasts, which she started roughly massaging through the almost transparently thin cloth. It was clear what she was starting to do as her hand moved strongly against her crotch and her entire body started to jerk rhythmically. She starting panting, her long tongue lolling out one side of her mouth as she watched his stunned reaction. Then she made several sharp yipping noises and her head tilted to one side with a vacant smile as she continued to stroke herself. His last image was of her obscene movements and her foxily grin.

Suddenly, he was ducking Naruto's unconscious body, back in the middle of the fight of his life in the real world.

* * *

Looking back now, it was all just too much. Later, Sasuke would have time to think long and hard about what it meant when an emotionally unstable girl showed herself to you because it was "fair," and why a schizophrenic avatar for a Bijū masturbated in front of you after offering a devil's bargain. For now, he had another problem. One that remembering the Kyūbi's human avatar form and its final actions hadn't helped at all.

After staring down at where he still bulged under the thin hospital sheets, he spent a few moments sensing the room. Painfully activating his eyes for a second and straining his chakra enhanced hearing, he determined there wasn't anyone hidden in the room that he could detect, not even under a genjutsu, and no one was moving outside in the corridor.

Slamming his head back into the pillow, he swallowed nervously. He didn't do this very often. Or really, at all. There had been that one time, after the team's disastrous trip to Wave. He'd accidentally seen their client's adult daughter naked in the bath, immediately shutting the door silently in embarrassment before the young woman noticed his presence. Almost immediately.

But he'd seen...well, she'd been sitting sideways in the small wooden tub, looking away from the door, her large breasts just..._there_, then she'd got up, turned, and bent over at the waist to pick up her washcloth off the floor, facing _away _from the door. So, he'd seen basically _everything_. His Sharingan hadn't been active, obviously, so the images in his memory had faded some by the time they'd returned to the village.

Later that week, he'd had trouble sleeping (as usual). Those times, instead of nightmares about..._that _night, he had been suffering from extremely perverted dreams, waking several times like he was now. And so he'd furtively taken care of it in the middle of the night in his empty apartment's cold bathroom, and eventually, after several days, the images and his body had stopped bugging him.

Now he had a clear, perfect memory of a very well developed girl totally naked, _all _of her, and he wasn't sure those memories would ever go away. His erection certainly wasn't. Sighing deeply, he slipped his hand under the sheets and into his pants. Yep, it was like someone had used an obscure Earth jutsu to turn it into stone. Annoying.

Thinking back to crystal-clear images of a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing naked in the fading sun, he mentally followed every rounded curve down her side, from shoulder to hip, imagining his hands running over them. Her form was perfect in his mind. The possible sensations would be similar to those of other flesh and muscle contacts he'd already had in other locations during training, when his Sharingan was on. His mind could easily reconstruct the feeling of his hand on her soft, naked skin, memorized the same as any muscle movements from a complicated taijutsu form. This was the power of his eyes. He now stroked himself firmly up and down, his body so sensitive it seemed like electric shocks were running down his spine then heading back up and collecting in his chest with every motion.

Rubbing his other hand hesitantly over his hairless chest (his clan was typically virtually hairless, except for their heads and their...), he scrapped his fingers against one of his small, hard nipples, then eased down his slim, muscled body. He was trained for flexibility and explosive power, not weight lifting, so his muscles were long and lean, taunt cables bunched under his skin. Running his hand now over his ribs and his tightly flexing abs, he avoided the cuts and bruises that were still healing, then continued until he ran all the way down to his inner thigh then back up, briefly and gently fondling himself underneath before adjusting his grip in one hand and grabbing the sheets next to his hips in the other.

He could almost feel her soft, strong, training-calloused hands on him, replacing his own. She ran a hand over his hard pecs, over his flexing abs. Her body was now pushed up against him, her large, firm breasts crushed to his chest. A thin sheen of sweat covered her skin, which was ivory white where the sun never touched, on her breasts and between her legs, but was now lightly tan everywhere else.

His bruised and aching forearm burned from his motions, but he kept going, seeking his finish.

All his senses recalled perfect details. He could smell her clearly, not a harsh, unwashed odor, but a strangely feminine scent that he remembered from his long hours training with her. Now her hands gripped his arms hard as she kissed him briefly. There was no extra sensory information there, only slightly disappointing imagination and conjecture about her full, wet lips. Then she moved, and softness and firm nubs scraped deliciously as she rubbed herself up and down his chest. His other hand was stroking her hip, running down to her thigh and rear, which were like silk wrapped over steel as she flexed to move her body against his.

And then, as in his most intense dreams, they were suddenly lying down. But this time he watched as she smiled and spread herself fully to him. Giving him a few moments to look, she then gently adjusted their positions and accepted him within herself completely. Then he was moving inside as she once again pressed her body to him. He could only imagine heat and slickness and an accepting firmness, her arms around him, her body around him, holding him close, never letting him go. Sasuke's heels dragged across the sheets as he rocked back and forth, loosing himself to his perfectly constructed erotic daydream.

She eased him along, continuing to hold him close, her short dark hair spread across the pillow as she looked up, deep into his eyes, seeing him and him alone, knowing and understanding him like no one else. There was only acceptance. He speed up, increasing his pace as everything became narrow and tense. Unlike before, alone in the middle of the night, this time he was thinking of nothing but her. No worries about himself. No questions about what he was doing. Only her body and his, moving against each other perfectly, her eyes staring into his, him deep inside her. Over. And over. Again. Until-

His belly muscles clenched and electric fingers ran all down his spine and settled on his groin. A short series of grunts, each spasm a burning ember of pleasure with an intensity he was completely unused to, and he was done. Now he was left alone in his hospital bed with just damp warmness all over his hand and the sheets. Sasuke's trained mind quickly recalling the room, he reached over his shoulder without looking, grabbing one of Hinata's clean and unused sword cloths from the bedside table where she'd taken care of his sword earlier.

Using the rich, finely textured cloth like this was silly and wasteful, but it wasn't like he couldn't afford it, and it did feel silky-smooth on his skin. Managing to clean most of it off him and the sheets, he wadded up the cloth and threw it into the trashcan in the opposite corner of the room without bothering to sit up or even glance over. He didn't see it landed in the bottom of the can without even touching the sides.

Sasuke slumped back in bed, trying to avoid one slightly wet spot as he sulked once more. At least his head was clear now and he could think. He had doubts about how long that would last, but there were decisions to make. Ones that would change his life.

He had techniques he needed to work on. He wasn't so foolish as to try dangerous new moves for the first time in the middle of a deadly battle, like his idiot teammate (the blond one, that is – he didn't know if Sakura even _knew _any jutsu). They needed work before they'd be ready. His last fight had almost been lost because the chidori was too slow, ineffective, and costly against an opponent with deadly, lightning-fast close range counterattacks. Like his brother. At its heart, the chidori was for assassination, attacks where the target didn't see it coming or couldn't dodge or counter, the bird chirp-like noise the last thing they heard. In other words, useless to him. He'd have to fast-track something medium to long range and armor-piercing.

Maybe that long ranged trap jutsu with the fire mines, or the one with the area effect lightning. Perhaps the disabling shock, but with a longer chakra blade, perhaps a pole-arm. The metal spear was the correct counter for swords, after all. To make all this possible, Sasuke realized he needed more practice in the Endless Garden training illusion. That meant he needed to kick Hinata's ass until she got her part right and they could perfect it.

Speaking of- no, wait. That wasn't...just, no. Sasuke sighed at his own rebellious mind. What he _meant _was, at some point he needed to deal with how Hinata was affecting him. It was as if he'd never even had that counter-seduction class at the Academy, final year (which he'd aced, naturally). If one quivering little Hyūga girl with the sexual aggressiveness of a lightly concussed field mouse could do this to him, he was in real danger of falling prey to some seductress in the field – and that would have more dire results than embarrassingly tight pants or sticky sheets. He'd need to tell her to figure out a way to further train him to resist that sort of attack.

Then there was Naruto and his prisoner. That was a dangerous secret for him to know. When Sasuke turned in his mission report, he had the option of committing low-level treason and _not _reporting what had happened, a crime punishable by jail time of no less than a month and no more than forever, if such resulted in the injury or death of a fellow Leaf ninja. Or he could tell some or all of the truth, which would be...bad exactly how? If the Hokage already knew about Naruto's secret, and how couldn't she, and if the civilians all knew, which they clearly did based on how they treated Naruto (making it the worst kept secret in the _entire history of ninja__)_ then maybe he should just come clean on the basic details and hope they didn't ask for more.

Tapping his fingers together, he thought further on that.

Yes, claim any Mangekyō Sharingan details as a clan secret, one not even that bastard Hiashi could demand he reveal, then deal with the Kyūbi's gender-confused inner self later. Tell Naruto that he knew about the Kyūbi (and wouldn't _that _be a fun conversation), then tell him about the Kyūbi's slutty female chakra avatar trying to make bargains with him. His teammate was stupid but he had to know at least the basics about the Kyūbi by now...in fact, at the bridge in Wave...then with Gaara. Yes. It all fit now. But the idiot should be fully informed of everything that had happened inside that chakra cage, for his own safety as well as that the rest of the village's stupid, stupid population. Not that they apparently deserved much consideration based on their actions. Useless sheep.

Pushing a small amount of chakra through his index fingers, he played with the flow slowly. A faint sparking feeling ran unevenly from one finger to the other until he concentrated more and started evening it out. He idly continued running the exercise while considering his options.

Talk to Kakashi (when available) about better jutsu. Get Hinata started on a new training plan. Hmm. Her bodyguard had been rumored to be responsible for the shy girl's new wardrobe. Maybe tell her to give Hinata some more pointers on kunoichi techniques of that sort. Yes, that would work.

Then talk to Naruto about the Kyūbi and schedule another...session in The Seal. And then...then he'd make a deal with the devil. Because what could she really do but tell him things? Her chakra couldn't escape, except through Naruto's own system. And that was, mostly, under control. If it got out of control, he still held all the cards with his newly perfected Sharingan and could slap her back down.

He gradually added one finger after another, moving the sparking feeling from one digit to the next and then all at once, playing with alternating flows and running the same chakra pattern from index to little finger and back.

Yes, his Mangekyō Sharingan. All it took to get his new power was a few minutes, endless minutes that seemed like hours, all the time thinking his...that Hinata had been brutally murdered. All because some madman wanted him and then he, he wasn't strong enough to save her.

Sasuke had known that to gain the Mangekyō, according to a slightly vague tablet and some old clan scrolls, he would have to be directly responsible for his closest friend dying. Just like his hated brother had apparently done with Shisui. True, his hand hadn't held the blade, but he was just as guilty. Some top secret clan reports suggested that Shisui had gained his eyes when his Konoha Police Force partner had died in the line of duty. In both their cases, the event (or the illusion of it) and their despair and guilt had apparently been enough to trigger the release.

Not exactly what he had planned. But then, he hadn't planned on using that path to power anyway. Sasuke frowned, realizing that he didn't even need to consider whether he would have let her be killed, knowing what he'd gain. Even now, he knew he'd rather die fighting to protect Hinata than pay that price. The answer was obvious.

But it was Hinata's apparent death that had triggered this. The little Hyūga who'd barely been able to last a minute in a spar against him a month ago. Who, because of her scheming father, would for at least for a few years be his wife. Sasuke shook his head, realizing that his best-case scenario now was only being married _once_ in the next few years, a situation literally unthinkable a month ago.

That was the last item on his list of things to take care of. Figure out how to prevent any more idiotic marriage contracts. Hopefully, Hinata already had some ideas and together they could stop any more _complications_. He had dismissed the idea earlier, which had been a mistake. They needed to start taking preventative measures _now_. Remembering how his stupid pink-haired teammate had stared at him earlier while peeking into his room as he pretended to be asleep, he shivered.

That is, if they weren't already too late.

* * *

_**Long Continuation Author's Note:** FIRST, _Secret Treasures of the Uchiha_ is not finished with this chapter! This is NOT an Official Hiatus of Death being declared here. I've still got the end of the story planned and a long epilogue actually written. I'm simply using this chapter as a good stopping point for a few months. Notice the lack of evil cliffhangers._

_During that time, I'll attempt to outline and write a buffer of at least first drafts of a few chapters for when I start updating again. I've already got the remaining story arcs named in my head and worked out vaguely in scattered notes. I'll post more gory details on my forum. _

_So yes, it will be a bit before the next update. The main reason is that life isn't helping my update schedule right now. In the meantime, I've got an idea straight from the Naruto anime:_

_**A filler arc.**_

_No, wait! Where are you going? Okay, look. What I mean is, I'm planning on doing a fast-updating story placed in the _Secret Treasures_ 'verse while I take the time to finish outlining and writing the main plot chapters. Like the anime, quality will be lower (or really, more like your average readable fanfic), less obvious spelling and grammar errors will be fixed later, and nothing that happens in that story will be "canon" or change anything in my main plot._

_I'll have goofy stuff, stupid jutsu that disappear after the arc, really unbalanced OCs, and less overt sexual content and swearing (most likely rating the story "T" instead of "M"). I'll be speed-writing chapters from a firm outline and whatever I get down on the keyboard will get published at the deadline. Sort of like in the anime, apparently (glares at the current filler arcs)._

_The goals will be a fun story and fast updating. Nothing else. I'll get the "serious" chapters of _Secret Treasures_ done at a reasonable pace, then when the filler arc is over, go back to updating what I've got for the main plot. Hopefully, the next time I start updating the main plot will take us to the end of the story, uninterrupted._

_My current plan is to update _Secret Treasures_ soon with a sort of lead-in chapter, while pointing people to the new story's first chapter, which will be posted separately at the same time under a new name (which will also point back to this story for required reading). I'll be putting up a poll asking for feedback on this idea and everyone should feel free to PM me or post in my forum with their opinion (link in my account Profile page)._

_If you like this plan, awesome. If you don't, the updates will be in a different story, so just ignore them until I get the main story back up and running. I'm still fully dedicated to finishing this story. It should be great. Anyway, Sakura would kill me if I didn't get to the next few chapters, where she worms her way into this mess. If I had to, I could time skip around and finish all the important plot points in three or four more chapters plus the two-part epilogue, but I'd rather have more character development, another Chūnin Exam, some cool missions, and an epic-length story._

_Whatever happens, this thing will go charging forward until the end, and that's a promise._


End file.
